Bound to the One You Loathe
by DCFanatic4life
Summary: When Stephanie finds herself in a jam, she has to look to one of her worst enemies for the solution...and he has the potential to make her life a living hell...loosely based on "The Proposal"...Chris/Steph...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the people or characters portrayed in this story. The characters belong to the WWE and the real people own themselves. This story will contain swearing and possible adult situations so if you're too young, maybe you should go read one of my many other Jericho/Steph stories.

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**A/N: So this was pretty much a request story. The premise is loosely based on the movie "The Proposal" starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock (a good movie if you haven't seen it). Anyways, people had wanted to see a Smoochy adaptation of it so I thought I'd try my hand at it. Well aware that I have so many stories, but if you've got a million, what's one more to the pile I say. I'm putting my own take on things so it's going to be a little different and I hope that's okay and that it turned out okay. I'm not too sure on this first chapter and if it sucks, be brutal and let me know, it's all good. Just a little nervous about this one since I've not really tried to emulate a movie since a very ill-fated story. But anyways, on with the story, please leave a review letting me know what you think and if you want to be brutal, go ahead. Hope you enjoy. :)

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She didn't think of herself as a ball-breaking bitch, but odds are, she is one.

But then, who really thinks of themselves that way? Well, maybe some people, some people who wanted to be intimidating, but weren't really so they acted like they were. Stephanie McMahon didn't need that, however, she was just a bitch without even trying and it worked for her. Sure, her father owned the company so maybe she would've gotten where she was just by being her father's daughter, but she'd earned her job just like anyone else and she was damn proud of the work she did.

If that meant everyone was afraid of her, so be it. She didn't work here to get along with anyone, she worked here to get the job done and nobody was better at being head of creative than she was. She was damn good at what she did and nobody needed to agree with her or even like her, they just needed to work with her. So far so good because she didn't hear people complaining to her.

Unfortunately it was because nobody wanted to talk to her.

Everyone outside of the McMahon family (and the jury was still out on Shane) knew not to get in Stephanie's path. She was mean, bitchy, sarcastic, and she didn't like anyone. Whenever she'd walk down the hallway, people would move out of her way almost instinctively. Everyone remembered when Brie Bella had gotten in her way and actually tripped her by accident. The Bellas had been moved to ECW for that infraction. Or the wrestler (nobody could remember the poor bastard's name anymore) who had dared say that he might not be committed to the sport and Stephanie had cut him faster than you can say 'not want to wrestle."

In short, Stephanie took much pride in her job and that's why she was the best at it.

"Ca-caw! Ca-caw!"

Stephanie looked behind her and saw Chris Irvine flapping his wings towards her and she scowled and folded her arms, wondering what it was this time. It wasn't that she didn't like Chris Irvine, it was that she _hated_ Chris Irvine. The man was cocky, conceited, egotistical, and a jerk. They'd never gotten along. The animosity that they showed on-screen had been real. When she'd done things like throw a bucket of water in his face or slapped him, she'd not been acting but, rather, taking out her aggressions on him.

"What do you want, Irvine?" she asked, trying to keep this professional.

"Don't you get what I am?" he said, grinning at her in that way that infuriated her. He was in one of his "silly" moods, where he was going to insult her and try to get her to play along. He could be so predictable sometimes and she didn't know why she was the target of his blasé attempt at "humor."

"I don't _care_ what you are. Unless this has something to do with work, get out of my face," she told him, starting to walk away again. She didn't have time for his stupid games. She just wished he would find some other target. There had to be plenty around here, what with all those stupid "divas" her father kept employing. She was sure if you tied them all together their collective breast implants would make them float away. She was so happy when she'd gotten hers taken out. She'd let her stupid ex-husband (then boyfriend) talk her into them and she'd regretted them since. When they'd divorced, the first thing she did after having a celebratory drink was to schedule the appointment to take those hideous things out. She'd felt like a person with two life preservers strapped to her chest at all times.

"I'm not actually _in_ your face, caught you on a technicality," Chris said from behind her. He started flapping his arms again and raced around to the front of her so he was walking backwards. She only hoped someone would push a chest behind him so he could fall flat on his ass. Now _that_ would make her night.

"Go away, Chris, surely there is someone else who you can act like an ass in front of because I'm not impressed."

"Well damn, here I was, hoping you would be impressed," he said, then got in her face, just to defy her, she knew, and then he said again, "Ca-caw, ca-caw."

"What are you doing? Would you stop?" she told him.

"I'm a crow, you know, following the Wicked Witch of the East around," Chris said proudly, like this was something he'd thought up long ago and was just waiting for the right moment to break it on her.

"Oh, very funny, because I'm a bitch, I get it, great," Stephanie said, her voice deadpan as she kept on walking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this wasn't the first time she'd heard herself being referred to in less than savory terms. Came with the territory. Let them have their words because in the end, she had all their careers and she was blessed with an amazing memory.

"You're really no fun, you know that, you need to lighten up, become a human being for once," Chris told her as he watched her walking.

It wasn't that he hated Stephanie McMahon, okay, so he hated her a little bit, but really, it wasn't too much or anything, it was more that she was just so…off-putting. She kept everyone at a distance and normally he'd chalk that up to insecurity, but in Stephanie's case, he'd chalk that up to snobbishness. She thought she was better than everyone and that made her an easy target for Chris. Nobody cared either way because nobody liked her. He was a god among the wrestlers for insulting her as much as he did and not getting fired or demoted or something. He shuddered to think what it was like around here while he was gone on his hiatus. Everyone must've cowered in fear of the evil Stephanie.

"I don't have time to play your little games," Stephanie said. "While you go out there and wrestle for like 20 minutes, I'm the one making sure that you have places to wrestle, that things are going smoothly during the show, and most importantly that you get a paycheck. So you might want to think about that next time you're acting like a dope."

"I wasn't acting like a dope, I was being your minion, oh evil one," he said, making his voice sound strange.

She rolled her eyes, "Go bug someone else, I can't stand you."

"And I can't stand you so it goes both ways."

"Do you think I care that you don't like me?"

"Do _you_ think _I_ care that you don't like _me_?" he asked her, repeating her question back at him, which he knew she hated. Once, he repeated everything she said for a half hour straight before she threatened to make sure he never got another match as long as he was with the company. Someday he'd tried to beat his personal best and go for 45 minutes.

"I don't care what you care about."

"Sure you do," Chris said, "A happy wrestler is a happy performer, right? That's all we are to you, just cattle to do your bidding. You write for us, you help book feuds, we're just like your little toys, you place us the way you want us and tell us what to say, well, not me because I'm too good for that shit, but other people. You just like to control everyone."

"And so what if I do?" she challenged, dared him to say something further.

"Then I think you definitely warrant the evil Stephanie moniker that you've gotten over the years," he told her. "We should all come up with a nickname for you, do you have any suggestions. What is a word that means horrible and mean that starts with an S? I'm trying to think of one and I'm drawing a blank. Since you're on the high horse of creative, thinking you're better than everyone, you should be able to come up with a word right off the top of your head, so help a brother out, huh, Stephanie?"

"Leave me alone, I'm busy," Stephanie said, walking away again. He was sure to tire of her soon. He'd been at this for a while and like the little boy that he was, he would soon lose interest in her and flit to whatever shiny thing caught his attention.

"No you're not, you're walking, walking is not being busy."

"I'm walking to a place where I will do work."

"But you are _not_ working right now so you're fair game," Chris pointed out. "The minute I see you doing work, then I'll leave you alone because I wouldn't want to bother you while you're putting all your toys in place. Just don't make me do any kissy faces at any of the divas, okay, got that?"

"Maybe I _should_ put you into another one of those romantic storylines you seem to enjoy so much," Stephanie said, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean, you and Trish, that was so hot and heavy, the chemistry was _amazing_."

"You _wish_ you could have that kind of chemistry with me," Chris scoffed.

"Oh yeah, because people were banging down the doors rooting for you guys to make it," Stephanie told him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I don't have time to listen to your little boy antics, go along and play with all the other children while I go be an adult."

"You know, you're really insufferable," Chris told her. "You're not better than we are, Stephanie, no matter how many times you think it, you're just like the rest of us, but you don't even want to admit that, do you?"

"I'm not like the rest of you, sorry," she told him.

"Yeah, I think we'll see about that. But go on, go be alone, like you usually are. It's no wonder Paul saw fit to cut you loose, I probably would've too if I were in his situation."

Stephanie slapped him across the face, shocking him in the process. He hadn't been expecting that slap at all so to have that sting on his cheek, he was flabbergasted she'd go that far. He looked at her and her eyes were like blue fire, sizzling and crackling behind those eyelashes of hers. He'd said something to set off a nerve. Chris had no idea the logistics behind Stephanie's divorce from Paul nor had he ever seen cause to go seek out those logistics. He'd always just assumed that Paul had gotten tired of Stephanie, at least those were the rumors, but then, the rumors had probably started with Paul and he could say whatever he wanted. Obviously he'd said something wrong and had paid the price.

"Get out of my sight," Stephanie said, her voice low and seething with hatred. He almost regretted what he'd said, but this was Stephanie and she'd said far worse to people he liked so this was just a little of the comeuppance she deserved.

"You guys, meeting in five," someone said as they passed by her and Chris.

Stephanie leaned around Chris, "Meeting, who called a meeting?"

"Your dad, ma'am," the production assistant said.

"My…he didn't clear that with me," Stephanie said, confused as to why her father would dare call a meeting without informing her about it.

"I don't know, that's just what I heard," the guy shrugged and Stephanie looked to Chris. "Well, get to the meeting!"

"Oh yes, mistress, yes," Chris said, pretending now to be an Igor-like assistant. Stephanie wanted to shove him, but refrained. For some reason or another they ended up walking next to each other to the meeting, though neither said a word. Stephanie did have a self-satisfied smirk on her face as she saw the redness spreading across Chris's cheek from her slap. He'd deserved that, the jerk.

When they arrived at the meeting, Stephanie took a seat up front because she was important and Chris took a seat in the back because he wanted to get the hell out of here and being in the back assured him that 1. he could sneak out of this thing lasted too long or 2. if this meeting didn't last long, he could be the first one out of here. Vince's meetings were usually boring and usually used as a way to boost his own ego. Chris cared very little for meetings, which is why he wasn't a businessman.

"I've called you all here because I have a very big announcement."

Chris only now noticed that the entire roster was here, ECW and SmackDown included.

"What is it, Dad?" Stephanie asked and Chris rolled his eyes, the man would get to what it was, but little miss Princess had to jump in and put in her two cents. One of these days someone would shut her mouth.

"After much careful consideration, I have decided to resell to Donald Trump."

"You're giving up Raw again?" Paul asked.

"No, I've decided that I think it's time for me to take a step down, I have sold the entirety of the WWE to Mr. Trump and he will be the new CEO and President of the company, effective immediately. Tonight will be my last night as the President of this company. Thank you very much."

Before the buzz started, the last thing Chris heard was a strangled gasp from Stephanie.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, guys, I'm really glad you liked the beginning. This chapter is where the real fun begins I think. I hope you continue to enjoy my interpretation of the movie and kind of take it in new places. Hope you enjoy the chapter and leaving a review would be awesome if you could, enjoy. :)

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How do you deal with something like this? Stephanie wasn't exactly sure how to deal with the fact that her father had sold the company she'd grown up in to a man that knew nothing about wrestling at all. Sure, Donald said that he was a fan of wrestling, but she was calling bullshit on that one. He was probably going to run the operation into the ground and her father had just let it happen. When she'd spoken to him all he had said was that it was the right decision, which didn't help her a bit. It explained nothing, nothing at all.

She'd never really had to answer to a boss. She was the boss and her father was the head and her father listened to her. Would Trump listen to her? He better because she knew what she was talking about and she was going to make damned sure that this guy didn't ruin her company. If it was even her company anymore; she owned stock, but she was not a majority holder and so the company wasn't going to her any longer. This nearly caused her to faint from the horror of it. Her entire life she'd been planning to take over and now? Now she was just someone's employee. God, how could she work under someone who she didn't have wrapped around her finger? Nobody would fear her anymore! She was just…a common employee.

She dropped her head in her hands as the door to her office opened. She shot up quickly, trying to appear fine and in charge like she usually was. "Ms. McMahon, Mr. Trump wants to see you in his office ASAP."

"Can you tell him to wait?" Stephanie asked.

"He said that it was urgent so you better get up there."

"Okay, thanks," Stephanie said, brushing her hair behind her ears. She stood up and looked in the mirror on the wall next to her. She appraised her appearance and brushed some lint off her jacket before grabbing her lip gloss and applying a new layer on it. She shook her hair out a little bit and was satisfied with how she looked so she left her office and went to the elevators up to the top floor, where Trump's new office was. She rolled her eyes that he'd already moved in as the elevator went up. When she reached his floor, some new secretary admitted her into the office and she walked inside.

She was surprised to see Chris Irvine and Paul sitting there. "You wanted to see me, Donald," she said, standing there feeling awkward and if there was anything she hated feeling, it was awkward. She pressed her hands to her hips a little, smoothing her skirt down.

"Yes, I did."

"Is this regarding these two?" Stephanie asked, gesturing to two men who she despised, albeit for very different reasons.

Paul was her ex-husband and if she'd been bolder, she would swear off men for the rest of her life because of him. She had tried to give him the best of her, but he had thrown it back in her face. Stephanie was who she was, she was a bitch, she was power-obsessed, she was controlling, but she tried, damn it, she tried with Paul, to change for him, to be better than she knew she was, but she'd failed. Paul had apparently wanted change in her she wasn't capable of, notably her age, her eye color, her voice. He'd just wanted someone different and hadn't been afraid to flaunt it to her.

Chris, on the other hand, was just that person who loved to needle her, push her buttons, step back and enjoy the show. He was smirking at her right now, knowing that it probably killed her that she didn't know this meeting was happening at all. It would be just like him to get satisfaction over something like that. She couldn't express her distaste though, since Trump was her new boss and she wanted to make a good impression for him.

"No, I just had a meeting with these two before you. I thought it would be a good idea if I were to meet with the champions of each brand, get their ideas, see where their storylines are going, their goals."

"And you didn't tell me?" Stephanie asked. "Because as you know, I'm head of the creative so most storylines will run through me."

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"You wanted to talk storylines because I've got the time," Stephanie said, hoping this man would not try to take over her domain. She'd held this position for years now and if he thought she was going to give it up to him, he was mistaken. She _knew_ this business, these storylines. Stephanie obviously had a problem with giving up any kind of power.

"Not exactly. I just think that this show, this company needs a new direction and I think that's why your father was willing to give it up, he knew that it was stale, old, needed some new lifeblood and I've got ideas, Stephanie, I've got big ideas."

"I understand," she said, nodding, though she didn't really understand where he was going with this.

"And with new administration comes new change. Now I know your mother has resigned to go run for Senate and I've talked to your brother and he has expressed interest in leaving and that gave me a great idea. I think the entire company needs a fresh start and I think that with this new change, we need new names and one name we don't need is McMahon."

"I don't…I don't know what you mean," Stephanie said, laughing humorlessly. She wasn't stupid, she could read the writing on the wall and the writing in this case appeared to be of a neon yellow hue and flashing brightly at her and she was trying very hard not to read it, but it was so flashy and eye-catching.

"I don't think we're going to be retaining your services," Trump told and she gulped and it was so loud in her ears that she almost began to think that everyone in the room could hear it. "Don't get me wrong, I'll be sure you get a wonderful severance package and you still have stock, right, of course, but as for your day-to-day duties, I don't want any McMahons."

"But…this has been my job for the last…for years…"

"I know, but like I said, breath of fresh air. Like I'm always saying, you've got to adapt and change with the business and I think that this is the right way to go. This is a Trump company now and as such, I don't want any remnants of the McMahon regime."

Stephanie was desperate now. Chris was snickering and Paul was almost outright laughing at her. Her eyes searched the room for any kind of answer, but this usually familiar room had suddenly turned unfamiliar, a house of horrors. Leave the company? Fired? She couldn't process these ideas. This was her livelihood, this was her company, her family had built this up and these were the last remnants? She was the last pillar to fall, the old guard surrendering. She didn't want to surrender, this was her job!

"Well, I'm not going to be a McMahon anymore so I think I should stay."

Trump was intrigued, "You're not going to be a McMahon anymore?"

"No, I'm not," she said, looking to the two men in front of her. She looked to Paul and quickly looked away, instead looking at Chris. "I'm going…to be an Irvine.'

"Excuse me?" Chris said, his eyes widening in terror as he stared at Stephanie. It was a good thing that his back was to Trump because his face almost appeared to be melting off his skull at what she'd just said.

"Chris, baby," she nearly gagged here, but pressed on, "I don't think it's right that we hide our relationship anymore. I mean, I know we wanted to keep it a secret because of our positions and my divorce from Paul, but it's time the truth comes out."

Chris looked at her and though he _hated_ what she was doing and the implication behind it, he was also a little intrigued by it. "You two are together?" Trump asked.

"We're engaged actually, he asked a couple weeks ago and I said yes," she said, trying to appear demure.

"Is that true, Chris?" Trump asked.

Chris licked his lips a little. His mind was turning now. Surely if he said yes, then he would get something out of Stephanie and this thought, more than any other, made him want to answer in the affirmative. Maybe she would offer to be his slave? Essentially he'd be saving her job and everyone knew how much Stephanie loved her job. She would _so_ owe him, maybe she'd owe him her firstborn with what he was going to say next.

"Yeah, yeah it is," Chris nodded, turning to Trump. "Stephanie and I have had a kind of caustic relationship in the past and we thought people wouldn't understand what drew us to one another and I guess I just wanted people to not make fun of us."

"Interesting," Trump said.

"So see, you can't fire me because I won't be a McMahon. I'll be Stephanie…Irvine now and as such it's a new change for me too," Stephanie said, "and if that's what you want to embody with the new administration, well, I'm the poster-child for it really. I'm going through this big change in my life."

"Well, if this is true, then I guess we can talk about your job, but how do I know it is?"

"I'm going with Chris to Canada for his mother's birthday, right, Chris?"

Chris was shocked that she had known that, _how_ had she known that? "Actually, yeah, I am and Stephanie is coming with me. We were going to announce our engagement to my family since they'll be less judgmental, we hope, right…sweetheart."

"Yeah, so you see it's totally legit," Stephanie said.

"Well, then I'm happy for you, we'll talk about your duties on Monday, Stephanie," Trump told her. "You three are dismissed."

"Thank you," Stephanie said as she waited for Chris, who stood up and cheekily put his arm around Stephanie. She wanted to throw him off, but she had to keep up the pretense as they walked out of the room.

Paul, who had been silent through all of this, turned to them and glared. "I don't believe you guys for a second, not for one goddamned second, you were just trying to keep your job, you wily bitch."

"It's true, I'm sorry you had to find out this way," Stephanie said. "Actually, no I'm not, I don't really care either way."

"You two are not together, I'd much sooner see pigs fly than see the two of you getting married. But don't worry, I'm going to make sure that Trump knows that this is a little hoax. You two are completely faking, I don't know what she's got on you, Irvine, but trust me, it's not worth it."

"We're together," Stephanie said, looping her arm through Chris's. "It's the truth, we're together and engaged and going to get married."

"Where's the ring?" Paul asked.

"We didn't want to alert anyone to what was going on," Stephanie said, "so I keep it at home, but this is really none of your concern. You're not my husband anymore so I don't have to answer to you."

"Do you think that Trump would be happy to know that you lied to him so blatantly? I think that he has enough sway in the business world to blacklist you with a bunch of companies. How do you think this will look to other people? Lying to keep your job? Who's going to want to hire a liar?"

"We're not lying, man," Chris said. "Sorry if you don't believe us."

"You're both liars then," Paul said, "and I'll find out the truth, believe that, I'll find the truth."

He stormed off and Chris turned to Stephanie, "You and me need to talk, Mrs. Irvine."

"My office," Stephanie said, grabbing his hand to keep up appearances in case Paul was lurking around. They took the elevator down to her office and she went inside, closing and locking the door behind her. "Okay, so I'm going to have to go to Canada with you."

"Excuse me, no you're not, and on that, how did you find out I was going to go home for my mom's birthday?"

"I know everything that goes on around here," she said.

"You're not coming with me."

"I have to. You don't think that Paul doesn't know where I live. Of course he knows where I live, he's going to probably have someone watch my place to see if I'm there this weekend, I _have_ to go with you."

"So go stay in a hotel or something in another state, then he won't know."

"He'll find out, you don't know Paul like I know Paul, he will find a way, my only choice is to go with you."

"What do I get out of this little deal? I mean, you did say that we were going to get married, do you honestly think I'm going to marry you?"

"It wouldn't be for very long."

"Oh my God, you actually want me to _marry _you," Chris scoffed. "Look, Stephanie, I'll say I'm engaged to you because I know you're going to owe me and if you keep your job I can finally get the title run that I've deserved since I came in this company. That's what I want, among other things that I haven't thought of at the moment, you know, throw in me facing and beating Cena at WrestleMania. I'll let you know when I think of the rest of what I want."

"I can't--"

"Stephanie, we both know you can and we both know that I deserve it," Chris told her.

"Fine, then you have to marry me."

"No."

"It won't be for long. This thing with my dad selling the company is probably just a fluke. He'll miss the business and he'll buy it back and everything will be fine. But until then, I've got to make sure Trump doesn't run my company into the ground. This company was supposed to be mine and I can't just abandon it. So we get married, I change my name for a while, my dad gets the company back and then you're off the hook and you can have a two-year title reign and you can beat Cena and Paul and whoever the hell else you want, deal?"

"Tempting, but no."

"What more do you want? Cash? I can give you cash. However much you want, I will give it to you."

"I want you to do something that I've always wanted to see you do."

"What?" she asked.

"Beg."

"What? You can't…"

"I do, I want to see you on your knees, right now, beg me, Stephanie, I mean, just beg me to do this for you."

"Chris!"

"Beg or I'm calling this engagement off," he shrugged.

Stephanie looked at him for a long moment and then slowly, she started to get down on her knees, one, then the other. She could not believe she was stooping to this level. But she was a desperate woman and desperate people did desperate things. She took a deep breath and he held up a finger and for a moment, she thought he would be merciful and not make her do this. But instead, and she should have seen this coming, he pulled out his phone and got his video ready and pointed at her.

"What are you doing?"

"Recording this for posterity. Whenever this little thing is over, you better believe I'm going to show this to _everyone_, but don't worry, you'll be in charge again so you can just yell at me like normal."

"You're not recording this," she told him.

"You _do_ know Trump is just upstairs, right?"

"Fine!" she said as Chris pressed the record button and gestured for Stephanie to go ahead and proceed.

"Chris, I'm in a huge jam here--"

"I'd like more adjectives associated with my name, please."

"Chris, you are amazing and very nice and kind and would you please be my husband until my father gets the company back? I need your help and I trust you. If you could just be nice to me, I'm begging you to do this for me, please, will you please do this for me?"

"Hmm…"

"Chris, please?" He smiled and winked at her.

"Okay."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks again for all the great reviews. I'm glad you're all liking or tolerating this adaptation of the movie "The Proposal." I'm trying to make it my own and I hope that's working out for everyone. Anyways, hope you enjoy and if you want, leave a review and if you don't want, shame on you. ;)

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"Honey, I'm home!"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and unlocked the door, pushing it open and stepping out of the way. Chris walked inside and whistled. The place was huge. So huge, in fact, that he couldn't imagine someone living there all by himself and he told her so a moment later. She looked at him and just shrugged. "When you're as rich as I am, you have every right to buy a place like this."

"Wow, snobby much?" he said, setting his bag down right next to the front door.

"Oh yeah, I don't think so," she said, pointing at his bag. He looked at her strangely and she tilted her head to look at him piercingly, her blue eyes like lasers. "Pick up your bag, please."

"What? I just set it down for a second."

"I don't want that cluttering my house," she told him and he gave an exaggerated sigh as he hefted it back up and slung it over his shoulder. "Thank you."

"I just put it down there because I don't exactly know where I'm going to be staying in this museum you call a house. I would've put it where it belonged in a second," he told her, already exasperated by her and wondering why he'd agreed to this nonsense as it was. After she'd begged him to marry her, she'd started to lay down a bunch of rules for him. It was just in her nature to lay down some ground rules.

The first of those was no sex in exchange for anything. Like she had to tell him that for him to know that he wasn't going to get any from this "relationship." She'd also told him that since they had to stay married and appear married for the duration of her father's insanity (as she claimed it to be) they would be staying at her house. He'd suggested his own house, but he'd barely gotten the sentence out before she'd denied him. She said her work was in Connecticut and she couldn't just flitter down to Florida where she'd get no work done and it was just about there that he'd cut her off and given in to her demands. Seeing her house, he was sure he could find spots where she wouldn't be able to find him.

"Yes, well, I will show you upstairs and you can choose a room," Stephanie told him and she turned and started up this winding staircase. He followed after her as she reached the landing. "Every room is pretty much decorated in the same way. You'll find that they have a bathroom attached and a television in them as well."

"So how much is the room per night?" he asked, mocking her for sounding like a concierge at some fancy hotel.

"I'm just trying to tell you what I have around here," she told him. "Don't touch that!"

He pulled away from the statue sitting on a table in the hallway. "You know, I'm not five years old. I won't break anything, I swear."

"I just don't want you touching that," she told him crossly. "That's all."

"Okay, God," he said, then pointed to this door. "I'm going to stay in here."

"Wait, no!" she said, grabbing for his arm, but it was too late, he'd pushed open the door and found that it was her office. Or at least it _looked_ like it could be an office if it wasn't such a mess. There were tapes everywhere, plus DVD's strewn all over the place, some covers open and some closed, revealing different Pay-Per-Views. Her desk had papers all over it, stacks of it and he couldn't even see the surface.

"Wow," he laughed, heartily. "So I can't put my bag down for five seconds, but you can have an office that looks like a hurricane stormed through it?"

"It's my office, I do work in there," she said, grabbing the door and slamming it shut. "Stay out of there anyways, I don't want you to see anything that I have planned or that anyone has planned. I can just see you charging guys backstage to know what I have planned for them."

"That's not half bad. Too bad about you not owning the company anymore because I would've definitely used my status to get some perks," he said. "So can I have this room? Or is this one off-limits too?"

"No, that one is fine," she said as he walked into another room. It was just a regular room, a bed, a dresser, a TV, a bathroom attached, just like she'd said. "Now you have to think of this as your home because everyone has to believe that we're getting married. So I thought we could use tonight to learn more about each other."

"Yeah, not feeling it."

"Chris, we have to make this believable!" she protested.

"I understand that, but I'm not in the mood to do anything tonight. When I'm of work, I really like to just relax, you ever heard of that word? You really should try it sometime, take the stick out of your ass, I really think it would do wonders."

Stephanie grunted. "I don't know a thing about your family."

"You knew enough that it was my mom's birthday. Oh, by the way, I did take _some_ initiative and I got you on the flight tomorrow. We're leaving at 10:30 so you might want to start packing."

"I'll be packed, don't worry. What's your mom's name?"

"My mom's name is Loretta."

"Okay, what's your dad's name?"

"My dad's name is Ted."

"Ted and Loretta," Stephanie said. "Okay, I've got that, is there anyone else I should know? You're an only child, right?"

"Yes, I'm an only child," he said, already bored by the conversation. He wanted to turn on the television and find something mindless to do until he got hungry. "You have food in this house or something?"

"Of course I have food."

"I don't know, you may just subsist on the blood of the innocent," Chris shrugged and she bit her lip. He smiled triumphantly. He knew that she was indebted to him and that he could walk at any moment and if he did, she would be out of a job and she'd have to putter around this big, empty house doing nothing. Everything she wanted rested on his shoulders and he knew that and was going to take advantage of having this massive upper-hand.

"I have food, trust me."

"When do you have time to buy it between breaking other men's souls?" he asked.

She bristled again and then composed herself. She knew that she would just have to endure all the insults. She just hoped that when the time came he would treat her like she was his fiancée and not like he hated her guts, which he probably did. She could do it, she'd had to go through worse. She'd had to deal with her father, hadn't she? He was a million times worse than anything Chris could do to her? He'd sold the company without so much as discussing it with her and was leaving her on this island alone. She didn't know how to _just_ be an employee. She didn't know how she could walk around backstage not being feared.

Oh God, was she not going to be feared? Why would she be? Who would be afraid of her? Already Chris wasn't afraid of her, Paul certainly hadn't been afraid of her, who was next, how far down would it go? Would she have to walk down the hallway and have someone like Barbie Blank or Mickie James look down at her or try to engage her in conversation like she cared? Is this what was to become her life, a common _employee_? She could almost feel her breath start to quicken and then it might quickly escalate to hyperventilation if she let herself think about it anymore.

"I have someone who comes in and cleans and also buys groceries for me," Stephanie explained.

"You going to be able to afford that now that you're just my wife?" Chris asked.

"I think I'll manage," she said dryly. "So I'm sure you'll find a meal downstairs."

"Wait, what, you're not going to make dinner for me? Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie, now that you're going to be my wife, I'm looking forward to having a good home-cooked meal whenever I want one. I'm kind of wanting one right now."

"You cannot be serious," she told him, shaking her head. "You want me to _cook_ for you?"

"I think that would be nice. It'd be like a engagement celebration, an intimate dinner between the two of us. I think it'll be romantic," he smirked and she had the urge to throw up right in his lap, just all over her beautiful bed, the one whose linens she'd picked out herself. She was starting, very slowly, to regret the decision she'd made so hastily in front of Trump. If this was going to be her life until her father came to his senses, she wasn't sure she could outlast. But then she thought of days upon days of doing nothing, being idle. She didn't want that; she couldn't do that. She just had to endure, that was it, endure.

"Fine," she told him, trying to put her best face forward.

Chris was actually surprised. "You're going to cook?"

"You want me to cook, fine, over dinner we can discuss our lives a little bit more, get to know each other so we can fool everyone. I don't go into anything half-assed, Chris, and if I have to pretend to be in love with you, everyone is going to believe it," she said, walking towards the door.

"How do I know you won't poison me?" he called after her.

"That's just something you'll have to find out, now isn't it?" she threw back.

Stephanie went down to the kitchen and started looking through the pantry. She gathered some things together, enough to make a decent meal. What Chris didn't know was that she actually _could_ cook. She was a self-sufficient woman, she'd lived alone long enough to know that if she wanted to eat, she'd have to cook for herself. So she'd cooked and her meals were decent, good even. She'd show Chris. She'd show him that she wasn't just some hard-nosed businesswoman who worked all the time. What did Chris think she did all the time? Just work? While that was a big part of her life, she was able to let loose every once in a while.

She puttered around the kitchen, deciding to just make something simple, spaghetti and meatballs with a homemade sauce. Her grandmother had once taught her how to make it quickly and simply. She threw some tomatoes into a pot and started them simmering. More ingredients found their way into the bowl as she made some meatballs and started them in a pan. She wiped at her forehead as the heat started to go up and if this cooking wasn't calming her down then she would be cursing Chris right now for making her do this.

She thought about everything they would have to do. She wanted to learn enough about his family to make it seem like she'd known of them for a long time. She wanted to be able to say something like, "Oh, you must be Chris's so-and-so, I've heard so much about you!" He'd told her his entire family was going to be there and she wanted to know them all. Her family didn't matter right now and even if it did, Chris knew almost everyone in her family. She didn't much talk with most of her family, except for her grandma, but other than that, they were very insular, untrusting people. They stuck together like a pack of wolves, never letting anyone in.

She wanted to make this believable. She'd have to coexist with this man for who knew how long and she at least wanted to know about him, even if it was Chris Irvine of all people. Why couldn't it have been someone like Randy Orton or Cody Rhodes, someone she liked and could probably stand to fake marry? Hell, she would probably actually fall for them.

"Is dinner ready yet?"

"Yeah, it is," Stephanie said, serving him up a plate. "There you go, enjoy." He looked down at it a little dubiously, like it would leap off the plate and adhere to his face and suck out his soul. "You can eat it, I promise."

"Are you sure?"

"Would you like me to taste it for you?" she asked him blithely, tapping her foot against the floor. She almost looked like a wife. She _was_ going to be his wife. It almost just hit him then. They were going to be _married_. This could be his life. Wow, that was scary. "Well?"

"I'll eat it," he said, heading over to a small table in front of a couple windows and sitting down. "Oh, do we have to dress for dinner or anything? Eat in the formal dining room?"

"Shut up and eat your dinner, ass," she said, making her own plate before going to sit with him. Chris was just taking a bite as she sat down. His face said everything she needed to know about her cooking. "How do you like it?" she asked snidely.

"It's good," he said grudgingly. "Really good."

"Thank you," she told him, eating haughtily.

"I could get used to this."

"Don't get used to it," she told him. "I'm not going to be cooking for you every night, let's get that clear right now."

"But you're a good cook."

"I don't care, I'm not your slave."

"Why can't you be?" Chris asked, "I think I'd like that."

"Forget it, Jericho."

"But we're going to be married."

"I said forget it."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys, glad you're liking my interpretation of the movie. Hope you like the chapter, I'm really liking writing the two of them in this, it's a nice change to go back and write them as those two argumentative people they were back in the day. Anyways, enjoy and reviews are much appreciated. :)

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"And your aunt's name is Pamela, right, now does she go by Pamela or like Pam?"

Stephanie glanced over at Chris when he didn't answer. He had his headphones in and she groaned. She'd been trying to get information about his family from him since they'd woken up this morning. She'd asked him over breakfast, but he claimed to be too involved in his eating to be interested in her questions. Then she'd tried on the drive to the airport, but he said he had to concentrate on driving. Now they were sitting at the terminal and he'd put his headphones in and was just sitting there, staring into space.

"Chris, are you listening to me?" she asked, annoyed that he seemed to be ignoring her again. She sighed and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked in her direction and she wanted to rip the headphones right off his head. "Chris, are you listening?"

"Sorry, headphones," he said, pointing at his ears and shrugging.

Stephanie ripped the headphone right out of his ear and he glared at her. "I don't care what you're doing, I want to make sure that I have things correct! Look, if we go in there and I don't know anything about you then it's not going to look authentic."

"So?"

"Do you not get that this is my livelihood at stake here?" Stephanie said exasperatedly. She blew some of her hair out of her face. "This is _my_ job on the line and I know it's a very hard concept for you to understand, but I _love_ my work and I don't want it snatched from me."

"Sure."

"Can you please take this seriously, _I'm_ taking it seriously and I would like it if you could take this seriously as well. I'm giving you what you want, the least you can do is involve yourself even a little bit."

"I was practically forced into this," Chris told her. In all honesty, he just really liked Stephanie being put in a position where she had to ask him for things. It was a nice change of pace to her bossing him around all the time. Despite them having their major differences she seemed to think that he was one of the ones she could just tell what to do and he'd do it. It was usually meant with much resistance on his part, but she just continued to try and boss him around.

"I told you that you'll get what you want," she said. "Now will you please, for the love of God, just let me go over things with you so I don't look like a fool in front of your family? I'd like to make this as believable as possible and I can't do that if you won't tell me about your family."

"I've told you all there is to know about me," he said. "I don't think you could fail anyways, you could just tell them that you were told, but you forgot."

"I don't forget."

Chris guffawed. "So what? You're telling me now that you have a photographic memory and that you can recall everything I've ever said. So then tell me what I was wearing five years ago?"

"Shut up, that's not what I meant, I was just saying that I wouldn't forget this. This is my ass on the line here and I'm sorry that I want to make it believable. Not to mention for the benefit of your family."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, now wondering what she meant. He turned a little towards her, but the plane was starting to board and she stood up, going to grab her carry-on. Chris shouldered his duffel bag and then grabbed her carry-on before she could and started to pull it behind him. She looked surprised at the gesture and he looked back at her. "What? A guy can't help a girl with her bags? I'm not a complete savage, Stephanie. I even brush my teeth and comb my hair in the mornings."

She glared at him and folded her arms as he chuckled. She had no response for that and he loved it. It took a lot to shut Stephanie McMahon up and he'd just accomplished that and felt very self-satisfied. They boarded their flight, settling into their seats as Chris put their luggage in the overhead container. Stephanie took the seat by the window and Chris the seat in the aisle. They waited for the rest of the plane to board. Chris watched the people go by and saw a particularly hot girl walk on. His eyes followed her and then he tried to see where she was sitting before Stephanie slapped him on the arm.

"Ow, what the hell was that for?" he asked, rubbing his arm. He was pretty sure she got a nail in there.

"You can't be looking at other women," she hissed at him, aware that there was a ton of people around.

"You do know that we won't _actually_ be married right, like, our vows won't _really_ mean anything," he told her.

"We have to keep up appearances, you can't have some woman on the side, so you can't look at other women," she told him sternly, her eyebrows knitting together.

"So should I just poke them out with pencils now because I'm pretty sure that half the population of this world, give or take, is female and if you don't want me looking at other women…does this mean I can't look at my mom? That'll be pretty awkward."

"You know what I mean," she told him. "Why do you always have to make a sarcastic remark about everything?"

"Why do you have to fly off the handle at everything?" he wondered.

She huffed and turned in her seat, hooking her seatbelt. Chris relished in the fact she couldn't fight back with him. She owed him too much. He looked over at her and she was staring out the window. He took the moment to study her face. She looked concerned, but was trying to mask it. He was surprised he could read her face so readily, but he chalked that up to just knowing people and he had known Stephanie for quite a while. He opened his mouth to say something, but then thought the better of it and reconsidered his words.

"Have you talked to your dad lately or your mom?" he wondered.

"No," Stephanie said. "They haven't been returning my calls. It's typical for them though. Whenever something happens, they lay low."

"Really?" he asked. "Your parents laying low? I didn't think it was possible for them, well, for your dad. I figured he'd be whooping it up, I'm sure Trump paid him quite well."

"No, because they don't like to answer any questions," she said, then shrugged. "It's just how they work. They have no problem confronting someone else, strangers even, but when they have to face me or Shane, they run for the hills. It's probably because…never-mind."

"Because why?"

"It's nothing," she told him. "Family drama is all. Do you have family drama?"

"Not really," he admitted, but there was something to his tone that Stephanie didn't like. She didn't push it though because he hadn't pushed her. "So have you talked to Shane at least?"

"Yeah, I've talked to Shane," she told him. "He doesn't know about this plan. We kept it light, mostly about him and Marissa and the boys and how they were all doing. He did ask if I still had a job and I do and well, yeah, so there's that."

"Yeah, there's that," he said.

They fell silent as the flight attendant went over the safety procedures though both of them were much too familiar with this spiel. It gave them something to do other than talk to each other. They'd gone a record 7 minutes without fighting and it felt better to just sit there rather than to fight, especially since they were on a plane. When they finally took off, Chris brought his ipod back out and started listening to music as Stephanie went to work on some paperwork. They stayed this way for the duration of the flight to Canada.

Chris would sometimes look over at her, but she was very much engrossed in her work. He could tell that she really did love it and a small part of him was glad to help, but that was only the part that felt bad for her. Part of him would have loved to have seen her dragged out of Titan Towers by security, Stephanie kicking and screaming the entire way. He might have even sang that "hey, hey, hey goodbye" song at her.

When the flight touched down, Chris already felt like he was at home. There was just something about coming home that always excited him. It'd been a while since he'd come for a proper visit that didn't involve him wrestling in some nearby city. It was something familiar and familiar was good in their business. So often they would be surrounded by the unfamiliar. He grinned just to grin and he looked at Stephanie. She was just staring out the window. He knew she'd been to Canada a number of times, but he wondered if she'd ever actually been there for a vacation or an extended visit.

"So how are we getting to your house?" Stephanie asked, turning towards him.

"My mom and my aunt are picking us up."

"Then just a short drive to your house, right, because I'm pretty hungry and could go for some lunch."

Chris chuckled. "Um, no, sorry, Stephanie, but my parents decided to move farther north so it's going to be about an hour's drive."

"What do you mean? Isn't it colder up north?"

"Well, yes, but my parents wanted the quiet so they've moved up there. My aunt lives up there and they're closer to her, sorry," he said, but she knew he wasn't sorry at all. She scowled at him and stood up as everyone was exiting. She trailed behind him again, noting that he took her bag this time as well. She wasn't going to call him a gentleman because she knew him too well to ascribe a positive adjective to his name, but it was nice to have someone around to help you out. It had been that way with Paul before things went south.

They walked down to the baggage claim and Stephanie watched as Chris's face lit up as two women raced towards him. He hugged one and lifted her off the ground. He figured that to be his mother. They looked nothing alike. She was dark-haired and a little darker-skinned than Chris. Stephanie tried to find features in her that she could attribute to Chris, but found very few. Despite having had shows in Winnipeg, she'd never met his parents before. She hung back, feeling a little out of place and trying to remember all the information she had gathered about Chris. She didn't want to trip up and cause suspicion. They just needed to get through this weekend to prove their legitimacy to Trump.

"Chris, you look great," his mother said. "I'm so glad you got the weekend off for my birthday. I think this is the first one that you've been to in almost five years!"

"Well, it's your 65th, I couldn't miss that," Chris told her, kissing her cheek. It was then that he remembered Stephanie. "Oh, sorry, I guess I've been neglecting someone."

"Oh, of course, you said that you have a girl coming with you this time," his mom said. "I was telling your Aunt Pammie that this sounded quite serious because you've never brought home a girl before. So this one must be special."

"Oh, she's…special," Chris said slowly, trying not to laugh. "She's _real_ special."

Stephanie tried to keep the frown away. She knew Chris was teasing her, but while she was here, she wasn't going to fall into that trap. She stepped forward as Chris pressed his hand against the small of her back. She nearly jumped at the contact, but then relaxed a little as she stared at Chris's mom and his aunt. They were scrutinizing her and giving her the once over; she could feel their eyes raking over her.

"Stephanie McMahon," his mother said recognizing her on sight. "Well, this is a surprise."

"Mom, Aunt Pammie, this is Stephanie McMahon, Stephanie, this is my mom, Loretta, and my aunt, Pam, but you can call her Pammie," Chris said jovially.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both, I've heard so much about you," she said, extending her hand to the both of them. They continued to look her over and she'd tried to dress as casually as she could, but she figured it wasn't the casual they were used to. Chris was in a t-shirt and jeans, his sunglasses still perched atop his head though he didn't need them on the flight. She was wearing a very smart black pencil skirt and a white blouse, classic contrasting colors. She wanted to look good for Chris's family.

"We don't shake hands around here," Pam said, extending her arms to Stephanie. "We hug in this family." She stepped forward and wrapped Stephanie up in a bear hug. Stephanie, having never been hugged like this before, awkwardly patted her on the back. Pam stepped away and Stephanie smiled at her.

"I see," she said, putting her best face forward.

Loretta stepped up next and she hugged Stephanie as well. "It's true, we hug and if my son saw fit to bring you as his girlfriend, then we are more than happy to welcome you to our home and I'm glad you could celebrate with us."

"Thank you," Stephanie said, nodding. "I look forward to it, really. It'll be a nice…getaway for Chris and me."

"She does so love our little getaways," Chris said, wrapping his arm around Stephanie and pulling her closer. "Don't you, sweetie pie?"

She wanted to gag. "Oh yes, darling, I do. He treats me so well, spoils me really. In fact, he told me if I wanted, I could have a spa day while we were here."

"Yes, but you are just so wonderful you turned me down and said that you wanted to learn hockey from me and my dad."

"You will love that!" Loretta exclaimed. "You can use some of my old gear."

"Wow, thanks," Stephanie said, her lips twitching a little bit, but she kept the smile on her face. "I'm definitely looking forward to that. Chris was telling me all about how I have to learn so I can go against him. I just hope he doesn't want to check me into the boards."

"Then let's get going," Loretta said, gesturing for them to follow as she and Pam walked ahead of them.

Chris was still surprised and looked at her. She looked at him and said in a low voice. "What, you think I'm an idiot, Chris, of course I know about hockey." She started walking ahead of him, swinging her hips in triumph.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, I'm actually really enjoying writing this story and trying to adapt the movie to my own style. So I hope that you enjoy the chapter and if you want to review, by all means, don't let me stop you from pushing the button. Enjoy. :)

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She'd been half-expecting to see some old beat-up pickup truck that she'd have to ride in the back of, though surely that was illegal nowadays, riding in the back of trucks, but she wasn't up on Canadian laws so her mind conjured up images of an old, beat-up truck and her clutching her luggage as it beat down the highway, bumping her up every two seconds as her hair flew behind her and in her face. She was pleasantly (and thankfully) surprised to find a very nice van waiting for them, enough room to fit them all cozily. Chris grabbed her bag and hefted it into the truck before climbing in after her to the back of the van.

She was just settling in when Chris's arm came around her shoulders and she looked at him, wondering silently what the hell he was doing. He winked at her and then leaned close, whispering in her ear, "I thought we were supposed to look real, snookums."

She wanted to elbow him in the stomach for that ridiculous nickname, but she couldn't with his mom and aunt right there, "Oh Chris, you are just so sweet," she said in a terse, nearly dripping with venom and sugar voice.

"That's why you love me," Chris grinned widely and one day, when this was all over, she would wipe that smirk off his face with something humiliating. Surely, if they were to live together for a while she would find something blackmail worthy on him. Hell, if this weekend panned out, she'd stumble into something to blackmail him with, just so she wouldn't owe him so much. He was getting far too much pleasure out of holding one over his head like he did. She'd have to knock him down a few pegs.

"You two are adorable," his mother said from the passenger seat. "I can't believe you two started dating. Tell me, what brought about the change. I know that you two have worked together quite a bit so it's not too surprising to me, but what set it over the top?"

Stephanie nearly choked on her own spit. His mother wasn't surprised that they were together, what? Had she actually been giving off a vibe that she would ever date this cretin? She couldn't stand him and his smugness and his…everything. Sure, he was easy on the eyes, but what lay beneath the skin was detestable at best. She looked to him to see his reaction, but he was as mild and cool as ever. She knew he had buttons, she'd seen his temper, the fight with Goldberg coming to mind, but he was so hard to rile up. Not that she couldn't, but she just had to find the right ways.

"Well, this here woman," Chris said with mock affection as he pulled her tighter against his chest. She went reluctantly. "She's pretty darn bold. She asked _me_ out, wouldn't you know it?"

This was not part of their story! She glared at him and he just had that easy grin on his face. They'd rehearsed this! Well, she had rehearsed it, told him a very good story about how he had surprised her with dozens upon dozens of roses and said that he couldn't go one more minute without being with her and had to take her out to dinner and that if she refused that he would be ruined for women. She thought it romantic.

"Oh, you did?" Loretta asked. "I like a woman who takes initiative."

Well now she had no choice but to comply so she nodded weakly, "What can I say, he won me over…"

"I sure did," Chris said, pressing his lips to her cheek and a shudder of disgust went through her at the feel of his soft, pliant, warm…lips. She gave another strained smile and wrapped her arms around Chris's waist in a show of camaraderie. She had to admit, Chris was very firm and yet somehow soft at the same time. What was she thinking? God, he was scum! His mother pulled away happily, rambling on about who was coming to the big celebration and how everyone was coming from all over to attend. Stephanie used the opportunity to scoot away from Chris and focus on the scenery passing by. She'd never been this far north before, but thankfully she had packed some warmer clothes because she knew that Canada could get pretty cold.

She just listened to the conversation going on around her, content not to have to fake her way through knowing a bunch of people she honestly had no idea about. This trip seemed to be taking longer than she thought it was and she looked at her watch and deduced they'd been driving for over an hour now. Surely they should be close now, but all she could see around them was forest.

"Chris," she hissed. "I thought you said it was an hour's drive to your parent's place. It's been over an hour."

"Oh, did I say an hour?" Chris smirked and her stomach started a slow descent. "I meant to say _four_ hours."

"Four hours!" she exclaimed, causing Loretta to look behind her and Pam to look at her through the rearview mirror.

"Is everything okay, Stephanie?" Loretta asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she blushed, which she knew Chris was probably loving and basking in. She was surprised he didn't have his camera out to capture the moment. "Chris just didn't tell me that it would take four hours to get to your house and I was under the impression that it would only take an hour or so."

"Chris," Loretta said sternly.

"I just misspoke," Chris shrugged. "I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to mislead you. Do you forgive me?"

He was giving her that quintessential puppy-dog look and his mother was also looking at him expectantly. "It's okay, sweetheart. I guess you just forgot how long it took to get some place that you've been too a number of times before." She could accept his apology, but she didn't have to make it a sweet one.

Everything settled down again and they continued this torturously long trip. Stephanie started to squirm in her seat and Chris looked at her, then leaned over again and asked, "What is wrong with you? Would you just sit still? You're like a three year old."

She bit her lip, then confessed, "I have to go to the _bathroom_. You said it was just going to be an hour's drive and we're approaching two hours." She'd had a soda on the plane and hadn't used the bathroom afterwards thinking that the drive wouldn't be this long. Now it looked like they were in the middle of nowhere and she had no idea how much longer they were going to go.

"Well, I think I have an empty bottle around here somewhere," he told her jokingly and she shoved at him.

"I'm serious!"

"Hey, Mom, is there a rest-stop or something nearby. Stephanie has to use the little girl's room."

"Can you wait about twenty minutes, Stephanie?" Pamela asked. "There's a nice little restaurant that we thought we'd stop by for lunch, do you think you can hold it?"

She figured the alternative was going into a bunch of bushes so she would take her chances, hoping she didn't pee in her pants. That would give Chris _way_ too much ammo if she actually peed in her pants in his parent's van. She crossed her legs and just tried to concentrate on something else, going back to watching scenery, trying to enjoy the woods. It really was picturesque around here. It seemed like it would be very peaceful to live up here. She was imagining a quaint, little town where his parents lived, a small cottage on a lake. That was a nice thought, retiring to a place like this, where it was just her and the man she loved. If only she could find that man.

"You know what I love, Steph?" Chris asked, resting his forehead on her temple. She let him. "The sound of running water from a waterfall. Can you picture it in your mind? Just all that water, flowing down the mountain into that huge pool of _water_. Man, that actually makes me really thirsty. Does it make you thirsty too? That quenching water. Hmm, I can picture it now…"

"You're a jerk," she whispered to him.

"Have you ever been cliff-diving, just jumping into that water, getting all wet? You know, I don't think I turned off the faucet when I used the bathroom at the airport. I hope someone turned it off or it will still be running and filling up with water…"

"I hate you," she whispered again, trying to put him out of her mind, but he was right there and his breath was blowing against her cheek.

"Just sharing my thoughts with you, baby," he said, pressing another kiss to her cheek and then winking at her when she looked at him, crossing her legs even harder.

When they finally pulled up, Stephanie pushed the door open and flew into the restaurant. Chris shrugged and looked at his mom and aunt, "I guess she really had to go."

Stephanie determined she wasn't going to talk to Chris the rest of the way to Dauphin, where she'd found out his parents lived. It was a relatively small town, only a few thousand people lived there and it was fairly close to a smaller lake. She spent the rest of the trip chatting with his mother, who was now telling her who was going to be there and who she was going to meet. She sucked up the information like a sponge, committing it to memory to make herself more believable as Chris's fiancée. She even nodded and admitted to knowing a few people, like his cousins, whom Chris had only mentioned briefly, but it sounded better if she knew whom his mother was talking about.

Finally, they pulled into a town and she looked around. It was almost exactly as she pictured it, quaint and intimate. Chris had said there was only one hotel in the place, so they would be spending the time at his parent's house. She hoped it wasn't too small. She knew she'd have to share a room with Chris, so she only hoped there was enough space on the floor for him because like hell she was letting him in her bed and if he dared to try and make her sleep on the floor, he'd have another thing coming to him.

They drove through town and then down some back streets and deeper into the woods, suddenly there was a clearing and a massive house sprawled out in front of her, at least the size of her parent's house. Her jaw dropped slowly as she took it in. This house must have cost a fortune. Chris reached over and closed her mouth for her and she looked at him and he smirked.

"This is your house?" Stephanie asked. This wasn't even a house, it was an estate!

"Yes, we had it built for us," Loretta said as they pulled up the long driveway and to a separate garage with a lot of cars surrounded by it. "We decided to have a little welcoming party for you guys. So many of our friends and family haven't seen you, Chris, I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not," Chris said with a grin. "It'll be nice to catch up."

They pulled up and parked and Chris started to go for the things in the trunk, but his mother told him to get that later. Stephanie stood awkwardly by the car, knowing that going inside meant they would really have to perform. She wasn't nervous per se, she just wanted to make it believable. For the time being, she was going to have to love this man who incited such hot-tipped anger in her. Chris came over and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze and if she wasn't so in hate with him, she would believe it a comforting one.

"You ready, ball and chain?" he asked as his mother and aunt waved them towards the house.

"Why didn't you tell me about this house?" she asked.

"What about it?"

"It's _huge_. It almost looks like my parent's house," she told him, except this one looked homier somehow. It was just a house, like her parent's, but she didn't know, there just seemed to be some feeling or something emanating from the house.

"My dad was a hockey player, he invested well," Chris shrugged. "Don't forget, Miss Stephanie, that I grew up with a famous father too."

"I didn't," she said, "I just…never-mind."

"Come on, everyone is waiting for me and I don't want to keep the adoring public waiting," he told her. "Especially not with my beautiful trophy girlfriend on my arm."

"You're terrible, you know that, right?" she said as they started walking up the pathway that wound up a small hill to where the house sat.

"Yes, but you love me anyways," he said cheekily.

"You wish," she muttered.

"I wish, please, Stephanie, I don't wish anything of the sort," he said, pulling her closer. "Now stay by me because I really like to watch you squirm, which, speaking of, for reference, in case someone asks, _do_ you like to squirm underneath a guy or do you prefer being on top?"

"Oh gross," she said, shoving him away from her.

"You two, come on!" his mother yelled.

Chris grabbed a hold of her again, "Come on, Stephanie, time to meet the family!"

She was not ready.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, guys, glad I'm doing this idea any kind of justice. I hope you continue to enjoy it and leave a review if you want to. Thanks. :)

* * *

She wasn't sure if he knew she was now clutching his hand so tightly that her nails were digging into his skin. She looked over at him and his face was nearly luminescent, glowing almost. She was almost jealous. She _knew_ her face never looked like that when she came home. They were only standing in the foyer, the _large_ foyer, but she could hear the buzz of nearby people and it had Chris anxious, she could feel it. It was as if the feelings were being transmitted by their joined hands. She tried to remember all the information she'd gone over, but it seemed to be flying out of her head fast while she tried desperately to clutch it.

"Dude, Chris, cuz, what's hanging!"

"Hey, Rafe," Chris said, letting go of Stephanie's hand to give a very manly hug to the man standing in front of them. Stephanie looked at him and she couldn't help but think he looked trashy. But she wasn't going to judge. For however long her father decided to keep up this charade was how long she would have to pretend these people were her family so the least she could do was be nice. "Nothing's hanging at the moment but my balls from my lady's hand, let me introduce you."

Stephanie wanted to puke at _that_ imagery, but instead she gave her brightest smile as Chris brought his cousin over. "Hello," Stephanie said, extending a hand towards him.

"Holy shit, man, you're doing her?" Rafe stage whispered, but the thing was, they were only about two feet apart so she could of course hear every word he was saying with perfect clarity. Well at least the personality went with the wardrobe. Okay, _now_ she was just being catty.

"Every part of her," Chris said, loudly enough so she would hear and he winked at her and she had to bite her tongue when what she really wanted to do was slap the taste out of his mouth and then do the same to his cousin, just for the hell of it because he was looking at her in a very smarmy way.

"Awesome," Rafe said. "I'm Rafe, Chris's cousin."

"It's nice to meet you," she said, shaking his hand. "I'm Stephanie McMahon."

"You're hot."

"Thank you," she said tersely, hating how much Chris was enjoying it.

"Rafe!" a shrill, nasally voice called and then a head peeked out from around the doorway. "Oh, _Chris_topher, hey, what's going on?" Stephanie didn't like the way she said Chris's name. She put too much emphasis on the first syllable, it just sounded…his name usually rolled off your tongue and instead she'd made it…unappealing.

"Hey, Allison," Chris nodded at her.

"You are looking so good these days," she told him, running her hand down his arm. "You must be working out even more."

"Hello," Stephanie said, stepping forward and looping her arm through Chris's. "I'm Stephanie, Chris's…I'm with Chris."

"Oh," she said, giving Stephanie the once over. "Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Rafe, come on, you have to come see this thing that your brother can do, unbelievable," she said, pulling him out of the room.

Stephanie stared at Chris and he laughed and it was a genuine one this time. "Don't mind him, I promise, my family is not crazy, but like any other family, we have a few weirdos in it. He's a nice guy, he's just…well, you saw how he was just."

"Yeah, I did, I felt like he was peeling off my clothes one item at a time."

"No wonder he left so willingly, must have come as quite the shock to him when he get that last piece of clothing off," Chris whispered to him and she elbowed him in the stomach. Chris wrapped a casual arm around her shoulders as he led her into the main part of the house, a huge living room that overlooked a small lake sitting just down the hill from the house, a patio overlooking the grounds. The far wall was almost completely made of grass and she could see woods as far as the eye could see. The room itself was highlighted by an enormous stone fireplace, not on at the moment, but she could imagine how warm it could make it in the winter. Everything was so warmly decorated that she instantly felt welcomed. She almost didn't notice all the throngs of people milling about.

"Your family is huge," Stephanie said.

"Well, it's not all family, I have some friends here and some of my parents' friends are here as well," Chris explained. "But yes, most of these people are my extended family."

"I never would've figured…"

He looked down at her. "Figured what?"

"Well, with you being an only child, I just always kind of figured your extended family would be small as well," she said, not sure why she thought that exactly.

"Well my mom has three sisters and a brother and my dad has two brothers so it's not like I didn't have kids to grow up around, you know, it's just I'm the only child. My parents broke the mold with me, that's all," he said smugly.

"That or they didn't want to subject the world to more of you," she told him, just as smug as she looked up at him. She thought he would have a snippy comeback, but instead, he just smiled down at her and chuckled a little bit. Well that wasn't his normal response to anything, but it beat him saying something mean to her.

Then he surprised her, "I guess Shane wasn't good enough so they had to have you then, huh?" he told her and she almost blushed, but she wasn't some silly teen girl who blushed at compliments, if that was a compliment, with Chris there always could be an insult hidden in there.

"Hey, Chris, it's about time you got here," a pretty blond girl who bore a slight resemblance to Chris said as she came over and gave him a big hug. "It's been too long since I've seen you. What with me spending Christmas with Jake's family this year, how've you been?"

"Great actually," Chris said, "let me introduce you to someone."

"You have a someone now, wow, color me shocked, Mr. Workaholic," she laughed, then turned to Stephanie. "Oh wow, you're Stephanie McMahon, I know this because I've been following Chris's career since the beginning so I guess you can say now that I'm a WWE fan. I heard about your father selling the business to Trump, that had to be weird, huh?"

"It was, yes," she said politely, not wanting to discuss it.

His cousin glanced at Chris and he widened his eyes at her, talking to her and she cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, look at me, I know you for two seconds and I'm already putting my foot in my mouth. Nothing worse than what my cousin has done to you, right?"

Okay, so Stephanie might end up liking this girl. "That's right."

"Hey!" Chris said indignantly.

"Before the ass comes up with something mean to say about me to make you hate me forever, my name is Frankie," she said, holding her hand out as Stephanie shook it. "And don't worry, my parents didn't name me Frank or something, it's Francesca after our great-grandma, but I prefer Frankie."

"Frankie it is then," Stephanie said.

"So you two are _together_, wow, that's like, I mean, I know it's all storylines and what not, but I've not heard Chris say the best things about you," Frankie laughed, "but then again, I always knew it was secretly because of a crush, right, Chrissy?"

Chris had never turned so beet red in his life and Stephanie was taken aback by it just the tiniest bit. She'd never seen Chris look like that. She decided to drop it though because of what he'd said about her parents not getting it right with Shane. He was probably embarrassed because he'd never had feelings for her and it was awkward at best between them. Frankie didn't seem to notice the exchange as she was prattling off names of people who were here.

"Oh, Chris, you know who's here, who made the _three_ hour drive up?"

"Who?" Chris asked.

"Charlotte," Frankie said with a smirk.

"Char is here?" Chris asked, looking around quickly.

"Who's Charlotte?" Stephanie asked.

"Just Chris's old girlfriend, who he was _so_ _in love_ with when they were in high school," Frankie said, slightly punching Chris in the stomach. He groaned at her, "Don't worry though, Steph, I'm sure he's over her by now, right, Chris?"

"Shut up, Frank and Beans," he said affectionately and her jaw dropped.

"Don't listen to him, Stephanie, nobody calls me that anymore," she said, then stuck her tongue out at Chris. "Oops, your dad, twelve o'clock and he does _not_ look happy, I'm out of here, nice to meet you, Stephanie. I'm staying the weekend in the house so we'll definitely be hanging out."

"I'd like that," Stephanie said, feeling at ease with Chris's cousin. Frankie left and Stephanie turned to Chris. "Why didn't she want to talk to your dad? And what's with this thing with Charlotte?"

"She was just an old girlfriend, we were engaged, it was nothing."

Stephanie's brow knitted together, "Engaged and it was nothing, what, did you knock her up or something?"

"No," he said, shaking his head vehemently. "It was stupid of me, okay. I never should have proposed, it was not my finest moment, believe me and I'd rather not talk about it, okay? That's part of my past that is off-limits to you, do you understand me?"

He was serious, but she wanted to press the issue. "If we're going to pull this off-"

"That has nothing to do with where I am now, understood, Stephanie."

It was more a statement than a question so she simply nodded her head and answered, "Yes," but she knew it wasn't over. She wanted to find out this little deep secret and she had the entire weekend to do so and she was always very good at getting information. There was no time to inquire more or break free because Chris's dad was right on them and she had to put up her front again.

"Christopher."

"Hi, Dad," Chris said almost formally, which Stephanie found out of character for him. With every other person in his family, he was warm and friendly.

"It's good that you could come to your mother's birthday, she's very happy about that fact."

"She's my mom," Chris said. "I know I haven't been able to make her birthdays in the past, but this is a big one for her and I wouldn't be anywhere but here."

"With a woman no less," Ted said, looking over at Stephanie. "I've never been introduced."

"I'm Stephanie McMahon," she said, shaking his hand. "It's very nice to meet you, sir."

"Yes, it is, Chris has never mentioned you to me before so it is quite the surprise to see a complete stranger that my son has never told me about in my house. I'm assuming that you're one of his many girlfriends."

"Dad, stop," Chris said quietly. "Treat her with more respect than that."

"I just think it rude that you obviously have this girlfriend that none of us have ever even heard of, makes her seem like a flavor of the week, doesn't it?"

"Dad, stop talking about her like that," Chris warned him.

"Something you have to understand about my son, Stephanie, is that he isn't capable of settling down," Ted told her and this warm house was starting to feel awfully cold to her. She took a look over at Chris and his face was intense and stony. She took his hand off her shoulder and took it in hers, squeezing him for all he had.

"I'm sorry, sir," Stephanie said, "but I know your son-"

"You think you do, everyone does and then he goes off with his little wrestling jag and doesn't actually have a life even though we've always tried to provide for him, he would rather go around fighting for a living."

"I wasn't finished," Stephanie told him and Chris's eyes bore into the side of her skull. "So I'll thank you to let me finish my statements about your son before you so rudely interrupt me with what you _think_ you know."

Ted was shocked and Chris was damn near keeling over at the fierce tone in Stephanie's voice. He leaned over and whispered to her, "Stephanie, not worth it…not with all these people around, please?"

She wanted to stop, but she couldn't. "I'm sorry, Chris, but I'm not going to let someone talk to you like that, especially not your father. I take it you don't watch wrestling, Mr. Irvine nor do you follow it?"

"I do not," he answered tightly.

"Then you are missing out on your son being one of the highlights of the entire show. He puts asses into the seats of that arena and he has so many fans and people that he entertains. Your son is also involved in the WWE's affiliation with the Make-a-Wish Foundation so not only is he wrestling for people's entertainment, he's also helping those less fortunate than him. If that makes him a bad son or whatever you are trying to imply here, that he's less of a man somehow because of what he does for a living, then you're going to have to look down on the both of us because I belong to that company as well and I'm damn proud of the work that he and I both do, so if you'll excuse me, I don't take too kindly to talking down to me. Come on, Chris, you have a lot of family to introduce us to."

She was starting to pull Chris away and he was in disbelief, "Stephanie, you have no idea what you just did."

"I think I do, oh and wait," Stephanie turned back to Chris's father, "And I'm _not_ jut a girlfriend, I'm his fiancée!"

All eyes turned towards them.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone, I'm glad you're enjoying the story and my take on the movie that it's based on. Hope you enjoy the chapter and if you want to review, then just click the button at the bottom. :)

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"Engaged?"

Stephanie looked to Chris and bit her lip. She hadn't meant for it to come out like that and she certainly hadn't come here to talk to his father like that, but he'd crossed a line. She'd never known that Chris's father had felt that way about his son's profession. Of course, she'd never taken the time to care what Chris's parents thought about his profession, but still, it was a shock to think that his father wasn't supportive. It wasn't like his father had been a doctor or a lawyer, wasn't a hockey player on par with a wrestler?

"Yes, Mom," Chris said, stepping forward, "Stephanie and I are engaged."

Chris sent a glance to his father and could see the clenched jaw and the angry eyes. Chris slipped his arm around Stephanie's waist. She looked at him gratefully. It was show time and she'd thrust them into the spotlight without even telling him. She knew that Chris was only in this for what she could get him, but she was still grateful that he was willing to go along with it, even if he was still a jerk most of the time. "I'm sorry, Loretta, we didn't want to announce it this way."

"You two are engaged, really?" Loretta asked again, like she didn't believe them the first time.

"Yes, we are, Mom," Chris said again, hoping it would get through this time.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, rushing over and hugging the both of them at the same time. "Oh…just…you're getting married, this is wonderful news! I thought…this is the best birthday present I could have received!"

Stephanie looked over at Chris as soon as Loretta pulled away and raised an eyebrow. She found it interesting that Chris getting married would be the best present she ever received. Granted, Chris was getting up there in years, but still, what kind of women did he bring home or lack thereof that his mother was so happy over something like this. She was also trying to tamp down a twinge of guilt. This wasn't going to be a real marriage and she wasn't without feeling. She felt bad that she'd have to deceive the people who were welcoming her into their home.

"Mom, calm down," Chris said with a short laugh. "You're making me sound pathetic." Apparently he _had_ seen Stephanie's look.

"I'm just so happy," Loretta said, the uncomfortable confrontation being completely forgotten about. Chris looked back to his father, but his father had disappeared completely. Chris sighed as his mother grabbed his hand and Stephanie's hand in each of hers and pulled them into the living room. People were trailing after them and they obviously wanted to grill them as well. "Okay, you two sit there."

She practically shoved them onto a loveseat and then everyone gathered around like it was story time. "Nice one, Steph," Chris whispered to her.

She ducked her head, "You know I have a temper."

He couldn't argue with that, it was one of things he knew _very_ well when it pertained to Stephanie. Loretta grinned at them, "Okay, the story, we want the story."

"What story?" Chris asked.

"The engagement story!" Loretta said.

Stephanie jumped in. She wasn't going to let this become like the story of when they started dating, with Chris acting like _she_ had asked him. She would never ask a man out on a date. It was the man's job to do the asking. Knowing Chris, he would probably say that she asked him marry him and she was not going to look like the desperate one. "Well, Chris, he's just so sweet, you know. He just couldn't live without me, that's what he says to me all the time-"

"I really can't, I mean, who else would nag at me all the time," Chris said, grinning at her, then at everyone, "I kid, I kid."

"He's always doing that," Stephanie said, punching him in the arm, hard. Chris cringed while keeping a smile on his face. The girl could pack a punch. "He's such a kidder."

"I am!" Chris said brightly.

"Well, we were just lying in bed one morning and cuddling," she told to the aww's of all the women around her. "And I don't know, I think it was just the moment…there was just…I don't even know how to explain it really. There was just this moment where everything felt perfect and we were perfect, you know. Like nothing can touch you and he looked at me and it wasn't anything complicated, there was no bended knee, it was just, the moment. I don't think you had it planned like that, right, Chris?"

She looked over at him and he'd found himself lost in her story. There was a tenderness in her voice when she was telling the story, one he'd never heard before for anyone really. He wondered if this was what she had always envisioned her perfect proposal to be. He couldn't picture Paul doing something like this. He probably proposed to her in front of her father, just to assert his power by marrying her. He could picture Paul doing that. Stephanie just, well, of course she deserved better than Paul, everyone deserved better than him. Her story was just…no, no, he wasn't actually picturing it, though it did kind of sound nice.

"No, that's not how I planned it, but you looked so pretty," Chris said. "I couldn't help myself. I'd been searching for the perfect moment and I found it."

"Yeah, it was perfect and he told me that he loved me and he had been thinking about it for a while and he just wanted to be with me forever," Stephanie said, grabbing Chris's hand and placing it in her lap.

"I love this lady," he said, putting a smile on his face.

"That sounds wonderful," Loretta said, "but where's your ring, Stephanie?"

Stephanie looked down at her hand. Of all the things she'd planned, she didn't have a ring! She widened her eyes when Chris spoke, "I would rather have Stephanie pick out her own ring and we just haven't had the chance to get one yet with our schedules. I wanted her to get something she liked."

"That's so Chris of him," Loretta said. "You've always wanted to please people."

"Yeah," Chris said, "but I mean, it's not that big a deal, we haven't even set a date or anything. But we're thinking soon, but that's not set in stone."

"It's a recent development," Stephanie said. "We haven't given it much thought. But you know, we'll let you know."

Stephanie was now realizing they would actually have to have some sort of real wedding. His mother was not going to allow them to get married at city hall like they had originally planned. Stephanie bit her lip. Her first wedding had been that big affair, her father walking her down the aisle, veils, bridesmaids, and the like, but this one she'd just wanted to be low-key and not just because she and Chris were faking a marriage. She didn't want all that fanfare for another wedding, didn't want the dress or the flowers or anything. She was over that and now she realized with Chris's mother being so excited, she'd have to go through that again.

"You better," Loretta said, "I'm so happy for you too."

Stephanie smiled at her as everyone started to dissipate, some coming up to congratulate them. Stephanie received them graciously then turned to Chris, "Bathroom?"

"Here, I'll show you," he said, pulling at her with their still clasped hands. He guided her to the bathroom and left her there with a smile. They could talk about what had just happened later. Stephanie was glad for the breathing room inside the bathroom. She appraised her appearance and sighed at herself. She was glad their engagement could curb that scene with Chris's father. She hoped she didn't encounter him for the rest of the weekend. She was not one who could keep things to herself and if he started talking like he had before, she would not be able to bite her tongue and she didn't want to get Chris into a fight with his father. Parents were forever and she was only temporary. She didn't want to cause permanent damage.

She washed her hands and stepped out of the bathroom, walking down the hallway and back to where she could hear sounds. She turned the corner and saw Chris and some woman. She was pretty, blonde hair, long and pulled back away from her face in a high ponytail. She was petite, much shorter than Chris and she was hugging him. Stephanie stayed just out of eyesight as she wondered who this girl was. The way that she was hugging Chris didn't suggest a familial relation.

"I'm really happy for you, Chris. I always knew you would find some girl to really settle down with."

"Thanks, Char, I'm glad you could make it today. It's been so long since we've really been able to see each other," Chris said, pulling away and grinning at her. "You just look so good."

"You are still the charmer," she said, "but don't let your fiancée hear you say that. I kind of saw how she was acting towards your dad."

"I think everyone heard that."

"She obviously loves you," Charlotte said. Stephanie pressed herself against the wall. Love Chris? No way, she was simply defending something she loved too. She was part of wrestling and she was defending wrestling. She was defending everything she loved, which did not include and would _never_ include Chris. Love Chris? Yeah right!

"No, she was just mad about the wrestling thing, she's part of the company."

"No way, she loves _you_," Charlotte said. "I wanted to say that to your dad so many times when we were still together and he kept bashing you for going to wrestling school. I wish I had the guts to do that. But she loves you so it was probably nothing to her."

"You don't…" Chris seemed to catch himself and Stephanie could almost hear him breathe. "Yeah, I guess she does."

"You're lucky," Charlotte said and it didn't take a psychoanalyst to catch the regret in her voice. "I really am glad you're happy, Chris and I'm so happy that you invited me this weekend, well, your mom, but I've been wanting to catch up with you for so long."

"Me too," Chris admitted.

Stephanie had to make her presence known and she turned the corner and put on her best face, her "I'm in love with Chris Irvine" face. "Hey, sweetheart!"

Chris looked over at her and he wanted to laugh, but restrained. "Sugar dumpling, come on over here." Stephanie came over and she wrapped her arm around Chris's waist, just to make it known that she was going to marry this guy. "This is Charlotte."

"Oh, _you're_ Charlotte," Stephanie said, "Chris was just telling me about you."

"Only good things I hope," Charlotte said.

"Well like he'd say anything mean about anyone, right, cutie," Stephanie said, pinching Chris's cheek. "He's always just the sweetest."

"Yeah, he is," Charlotte said wistfully. "Well, you two look like you want to be alone so I'll just head on over there, but we'll catch up later, right, Chris? You should come with, Stephanie, you'd love to hear all the embarrassing stories I have about this guy."

Stephanie's face lit up and it scared Chris, "I'd _love_ that."

"Yeah, we don't have to do that," Chris said, shaking his head repeatedly.

"Yes, yes we do," Stephanie said eagerly. "We most certainly have to. I want to hear _all_ of them, every single one you've got."

Charlotte laughed, "Then you will, bye, you guys."

"You're not coming out with us," Chris hissed at her. "Don't you think you've caused enough trouble for one day?"

"Then we'll do it tomorrow so I can get in more trouble," she told him.

"Just stay away from her," Chris said.

"Why? You can't tell me what to do," Stephanie said.

"You're not," he told her.

"Whatever," she said. "You still love her?"

"Her who?"

"Oh, I don't know, the girl you were just practically drooling over right there," Stephanie said, gesturing to the direction Charlotte had wandered off in. "Look, if we're going to pull this off, I can't be running after you and your ex."

"Don't bring her into this, I told you I'd marry you and that's it," Chris said, "got it?"

"No, because I'm not going to deal with you acting like you want her. People will notice."

"Stop it, I'm not in love with Charlotte and I'm not drooling over her, so drop it!"

"Fine, fine, it's dropped."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, I hope you'll enjoy reading the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing this one. I hope I'm doing the movie at least some kind of justice. Review if you feel so incline, I won't hate on you. :)

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"So you two can stay in here."

Stephanie looked around the room. It was beautifully decorated with lots of wood furniture and a wood floor with a gorgeous red rug underneath the large sleigh bed, which was the only bed the room. She turned to Loretta and smiled, "Loretta this is beautiful, but I'm thinking that maybe Chris and I should have separate rooms?"

"Oh nonsense," Loretta laughed, "I'm not so old, Stephanie, that I don't know what you and my son do, okay? You don't have to put up the act like you two don't sleep in the same bed, I won't hold it against him and I'm not the type of woman who cares about things like that."

"Oh," Stephanie said, trying to hide her cringe, "I guess you've got us."

"Oops," Chris said cheekily, wrapping his arm around Stephanie's waist, "you got us, Mom, I can barely keep this woman's hands off me. Even if you put us in separate rooms, she'd probably sneak into my bed anyways."

"Stop it," Stephanie said, elbowing him hard in the side. He grunted before he glared at her with a sickening smile on her face. "He just loves to tease me sometimes, reminds him of the times that we were working against each other."

"And I did so love that time, shnookums," Chris told her.

"You two are adorable," Loretta said. "I'm sorry that the party got…a little out-of-hand, but I'm glad that you two are here and that we could have everyone over tonight and then for my party. I'm glad you both are here and congratulations again, you two, I mean that from the bottom of my heart."

"Thanks, Mom," Chris said, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Loretta came over and nearly demanded the same from Stephanie. Then Loretta waved and closed the door behind her, leaving Chris and Stephanie alone for the first time in hours. Stephanie drew a deep breath, glad that she didn't need to keep up the façade until the next morning. "I sleep in the nude, just so you know."

"Oh, you're so gross," Stephanie said, shoving at his chest. "I can't believe I have to share a room with you. You'll probably try to pull some stupid, juvenile prank on me like putting my hand in warm water or freezing my bras or something."

"I wasn't planning on it, but now that you mention it," he grinned lecherously.

"Don't even try it," she said, poking him in the chest. "I'm exhausted from all the travel and meeting your entire family. I should have known they would all be like you, boisterous and…loud. You're a very loud family."

"It's called talking, I'm sure your family is not accustomed to it, but it's when people move their mouths and makes sounds that are called words and they do it at each other, it's a novel concept, but you'll get used to it."

"Of course you guys talk and _of course_ my family doesn't or else I would have known that my father lost his mind," Stephanie said as she started to unbutton her top. "Then I could have come up with something better than pretending to marry the likes of _you_."

"Well, I'm sorry that your prospects were so low that you had to stoop to my level," Chris said, his back turned from her so he couldn't see that she was undressing. He grabbed what looked to be a handmade quilt from the end of the bed and a pillow from the top.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie asked.

"I'm making a bed on the floor," Chris told her, dumping the blanket onto the ground. "I know you think I'm some Neanderthal, which, I don't get because I've seen your ex-husband a million times and _he_ has classic Neanderthal syndrome, but I can be a gentleman every now and again and I'm letting you have the bed."

"The bed is big enough, we can share," Stephanie responded.

"What?" Chris asked, finally looking up as his eyes widened. Stephanie was only in her bra and panties and when did _that_ happen? Also, was she always that hot? Her body was curvy and her abs, had she been working out because they were more clearly defined than he'd ever seen them before. He tried not to stare and averted his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Oh my God, don't tell me you've never seen a woman in her underwear before?" Stephanie asked with a roll of the eyes. "It's like a bathing suit, it's not that big a deal."

"Yeah, but you're you!"

"Yes, who cares?" she said, walking over to her suitcase and bending over and it was like she was trying to give Chris eye candy, but surely she wasn't doing that. She hated his guts and so what if her ass was drool-worthy. She didn't have a bony ass like some skinny chicks, but there was definitely a…what the hell was he thinking? He busied himself by putting the blanket back on the bed and stripping down to his boxers.

"I can really take the floor, it's no problem," he said, still trying to be a gentleman and after seeing Stephanie like that, maybe being in bed with her wasn't the best idea.

"I don't care, just don't get all over me while we're sleeping and it'll be fine," Stephanie said, pulling a tank top over her head and then somehow deftly removing her bra before she wandered into the bathroom. "You act like you've never seen boobs before."

"I have to! I was just trying to be nice," he said, coming into the bathroom and going over to the other sink that was in there. Stephanie seemed to be examining her face. "Don't worry, that wart you have is hardly noticeable, all witches have them."

"Oh, you're so funny and clever."

"I like to think so," he said before brushing his teeth and leaving her to whatever womanly things she needed to do before bed. He climbed into bed and just stared at the ceiling. She showed up a few minutes later and climbed into bed. There was a TV in the room, but it was late and she was tired and didn't feel like watching anything.

"Are you going to watch TV?" she asked.

"No, I'm tired," he said, punctuating the statement with a yawn. "I think I just want to try and get some sleep."

"Me too," she said, keenly aware of his body. Even though the bed was large, she could still feel the heat emanating from him. She realized they were both lying on their backs, hardly moving. If it wasn't such a tragic scene, she might have laughed at it. All these years of back and forth banter and sarcasm and now they were in bed together. Granted, it wasn't in _that_ sense, but they were still in bed together and they were still closer than they'd ever been. Maybe she should have kept her bra on…or put pants on.

"Yeah, traveling is always tiring, then with the whole family get-together."

"Yeah, that must have been nice for you to see your family," she said.

"It was, it's been a long time since I've been able to see them all, what with all the traveling and working and then when I do get a free day, I usually spend it at home," Chris admitted. "But I'm glad they're here and I get to see them, even the ones that annoy me."

"My family never gets together like that," Stephanie mused, "My dad has a brother and he has a family, but I haven't seen them since I was a teenager and my mom's family, they've always looked down at my mom for working in this business when they thought she had a promising career in Washington. So it's just the four of us and Marissa, but even then, Shane has his own life and my parents have always been busy so then it's just…me."

"That's kind of sad."

"I'm not accustomed to anything else," she told him, "so I wouldn't know, all of this family stuff you have is all new to me. Your family is nice though…I mean, for the most part. Chris?"

"Stephanie," he said and she could hear the exasperation in his voice, but she had to ask.

"Why do you let your dad speak to you like that?" she asked.

"I can't believe what _you_ did to him," Chris laughed. "I thought he would explode and order you out of his house actually. I've never seen…I've never seen anyone talk to him like that and he was a hockey player."

"See, that's what I don't get, he was a hockey player, a professional athlete and he's getting on _your_ case. He had you while he was on the road, right, with your mom?"

"Yeah, he was still playing."

"So he's even worse because he left _you_ and a wife behind while he went and played hockey. Who are you hurting by wrestling? Nobody, but I bet there were times when you were younger that you wished your dad would be there and he wasn't and now he has the gall to call you out for doing something you love?"

"He wanted better for me," Chris explained. "He always saw me as being something more stable, a lawyer, a doctor, you know, those professions that everyone dreams their kid of having, the high-paying ones where they can retire at 40 and spend the rest of their time supporting their parents, having a family, and golfing, in that order."

"That's crap," Stephanie said, "and you shouldn't have to take that from him. The things he was saying to me, God, no wonder you never bring a girl home, I'd be terrified to bring anyone home to that kind of scrutiny."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't seem to want to talk about a lot of things," she told him, turning on her side, "but Chris-"

"Stephanie, you don't know me," he told her, turning on his side now so they were facing each other. "You don't know what goes on in my head and you don't know what I feel about things or how I interact with the people in my life."

"Except I do, I've known you for years and years," Stephanie told him, "and you pick up on things in that time, you know. I can tell that this really bothers you and the fact that you won't talk about it is an indicator of that. Why do you allow him to try and dictate your life?"

"He wanted me to stay here in Winnipeg," Chris confessed. "He'd gotten me a job as a paralegal with the hopes of sending me to law school. When I was working for my journalism degree, he was already filling out applications for me. He thought I was going to settle down and he thought I was going to marry Charlotte. Charlotte being the daughter of his best friend. Then I decided I wanted to go to wrestling school and I never looked back, but my dad has, he keeps looking back at what he calls the promise that I had that I never lived up to my potential."

"Except you _are_ and then some!" Stephanie protested. "I should talk to that man."

"No, no, you shouldn't, I think you've done enough, crazy lady. One more outburst and then I think he will throw you _and_ me out."

"Then let him!" Stephanie told Chris and he just scoffed at her.

"Okay, let's not go overboard with the McMahon here," Chris told her. "Don't worry about my dad, he's not a big deal. My mom loves you and she loves the idea of me settling down so…"

"Chris?"

"Oh great, what now?"

"I don't want hurt your mom," Stephanie told him, screwing her lips together in a tight purse. "I know we were discussing eloping, but…"

"Oh God, you want a real wedding?"

"I don't know, maybe just one with your mom there?"

"Stephanie, we're already in this too deep. I don't want my mom to love you because I don't love you and our marriage is only until your father comes to his senses and you can keep your job and I can reap the benefits."

"I know, but…"

"Let's just stick to the plan, okay?"

"Okay," she told him, "Chris?"

"I'm going to kill you, you know that, right?" he groaned, looking at her again. "What it is you want this time?"

"I don't know if I've said it thus far, not sincerely anyways, but I just…God, why do I have to say this when it feels so wrong," she told him, obviously joking and he laughed and poked her in the shoulder.

"Get it out already, some people are tired and want to go to sleep!" he teased her, finding it oddly more and more comfortable being in bed with her, not like _that_, but just feeling more…friendly with her, not attracted to her because though she was beautiful, she was also a shrew.

"I just wanted to say thank you."

"What? I'm sorry, I didn't think your brain could form those words so you're going to have to say them again because I don't think I believed what I was hearing," he told her and then he yelped when her foot connected with his shin under the covers. "Oww, bodily harm over here, one more like that and I'm kicking you out of bed."

"The hell you are," Stephanie said, kicking him again in the shin and he grabbed her wrists and her eyes widened as he tried to stop her. "Chris, stop, let me go!"

"I warned you," he told her, tussling with her as she tried to squirm free. She managed to kick him in the thigh as he tried to gain leverage on her and she yelped again, "Stephanie!"

"Chris!" Stephanie yelled as he tried to pin her down and then push her off the bed. They were laughing and fighting each other when there came a loud knock on the door.

"We can hear you two!" Chris's aunt's voice floated through the door and Chris and Stephanie looked at each other, their eyes widening impossibly large. "You two might want to keep your antics down so the rest of us aren't traumatized!"

Stephanie and Chris kept silent for a moment until they were sure that his aunt was gone. Then they both fell to the mattress and started laughing, Stephanie covering up her mouth before she guffawed and gave Chris more material to tease her with. He probably wouldn't have noticed, however, because he was laughing at the ideas that must have been floating through everyone's head about them.

"I can't believe they thought," Stephanie laughed. "I mean, that's ridiculous."

"Completely," Chris said as their laughter died down. They looked at each other, their laughter ceasing and a strange awkwardness settled over them. He was eager to get rid of it and scooted back over to his side of the bed. "Hey, at least we're being convincing."

"Yeah," she said and if he didn't know better, she was blushing a little bit. "So anyways, thanks."

"No thanks needed."

"Except there is."

"Stephanie, really, don't worry about it."

"Okay, but really thank you."

"You've got to stop with that."

"Will you just accept my thanks for doing this?"

"Fine, I'm accepting your thanks."

She smiled and then rolled over to her other side, "Goodnight, Chris."

"Goodnight, Stephanie."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone, I really appreciate it and I hope they keep coming. Enjoy the chapter. :)

* * *

"Well you two seemed to be having fun last night."

Stephanie could feel her face burning as she ducked her head down. She and Chris had just come downstairs for breakfast and everyone had greeted them with smirks on their faces. News apparently traveled fast around here and now everyone was surely thinking that she and Chris had had sex (loudly!) last night when they hadn't. Sure, Chris was a very good-looking guy and he was passionate about so many things that she figured he'd be very passionate in bed, but God, why was she even thinking about this? She hated Chris, he was a slime, she didn't want to have _sex_ with him!

"Mom," Chris groaned as he took a seat next to Stephanie, "come on!"

"I'm sorry," Loretta laughed. Stephanie dared to look over at Chris and was relieved to see he was embarrassed as well. He looked almost cute while blushing. She wished she could take a picture so she could use it to mock him later to his peers. "I think it's sweet that you two are so in love. I've been waiting for Chris to settle down for such a long time and seeing him so happy with you is nice for me."

"You two were getting it _on_," Frankie said, sticking her tongue out at them and this made Chris and Stephanie blush even harder. "I mean, seriously, you guys, could you _be_ any louder last night? I think the whole town heard you!"

"Shut up, Frankie," Chris said, rolling his eyes at her. "What Stephanie and I do behind closed doors is our business, okay? We weren't even doing anything last night so you can all put your perverted minds away."

"Oh yeah right," Frankie needled him. "Chris, I think it's safe to say that we're all adults here and you two are engaged! Whatever you guys do is your own business, but try and keep it down next time because I don't need to hear that kind of stuff coming from my cousin."

"There was nothing coming from…oh just be quiet," Chris cringed, grabbing a piece of toast and buttering it aggressively. "You guys can just go on thinking whatever the hell you want to, I don't give a damn what you think about."

"Chris, calm down," Stephanie said, reaching out and rubbing his shoulder. "We _are_ all adults here and certainly we know what happened and that's between us."

Chris looked over at her and instead of the smirk he expected to find, she looked a lot more sympathetic than he thought she would. Of course, she was kind of being besmirched too. She couldn't be comfortable with people thinking they had sex because that was the last thing on her mind, he was sure. For him, sure, he'd thought of Stephanie a few times before, but he was a guy and he thought about sex all the time so it was just ingrained in his biology. Surely, Stephanie, with her female control, didn't. He looked at her gratefully and actually found solace in her hand rubbing his shoulder.

"Chris and Stephanie sitting in a tree, S-E-X-I-N-G," Frankie teased as she spooned some cereal into her mouth. Chris flipped her off and Frankie just laughed at him as Loretta sat down and glanced at her sister. This didn't go unnoticed by Stephanie, who was studying the two.

"What's with the looks?" she finally asked, wondering what was going on. It felt like something was happening that she wasn't aware of and that _always_ irked Stephanie. She liked to be in the know with everything.

"Okay, so we had an idea," Loretta said and giggled at her sister. "Now, I know you two probably want a beautiful wedding and fancy I'm sure because Stephanie, I know you're quite wealthy, but…I would love it if you two got married right here, this weekend, it would be the best birthday gift I could ever receive."

"What!" Chris and Stephanie exclaimed at the same time.

"Oh, I know that it's short notice, but just seeing the two of you and the sooner you're married, the sooner you can start on those grandchildren you seemed to be working on last night," Loretta said with a wink that made Chris and Stephanie's stomachs drop. A kid between the two of them would be the last thing either of them would ever want.

"Loretta, I'm extremely flattered that you thought of this, but-"

"Stephanie and I really didn't want any of that hoopla," Chris said, "we actually wanted something really quiet and you know, pretty private and small, especially because this is Stephanie's second wedding, since she made such a _huge_ mistake with that first husband of hers, _huge_, glaring, colossal mistake."

Stephanie looked over at him, "Thank you for that, but Chris is right, you guys. I mean, we really appreciate the sentiment, but we can't take over your weekend like that, it wouldn't feel right and I wouldn't feel right overshadowing your birthday."

"It would make my birthday a thousand times better, believe me, I've been waiting for Chris to settle down for so long and I want to help. Do you think your parents would be able to fly up?" Loretta asked.

"Mom, Stephanie said she doesn't feel right doing this and neither do I, can you please just respect our wishes on this one?" he implored. He didn't want a wedding like that. He knew this was just for business and he and Stephanie were not going to stay married and he would never want to hurt his mother like that. He just wanted something low-key so when he exited this marriage, it had as little strain as necessary.

"I'm not taking no for an answer!" Loretta told him. "I think this would be wonderful for everyone. If your family can't come up…"

Her father would know, he would just know what she was doing, "My family is…out of the country right now, my dad decided to take this very long vacation after he sold the company, I'm not even really sure where they are." She was clearly trying to stall them, but it wasn't going to deter Loretta and Pam.

"Well, they've already seen you married once," Pam shrugged, "they won't miss you seeing it again."

Stephanie looked to Chris, who shook his head and then Stephanie thought of something, "Actually, we probably can't because we wanted to have a prenuptial agreement written up and we haven't even gotten to do that."

"Oh, you don't need one of those, you're both adults and if you were ever to break up, you'd handle it accordingly, but I can tell you two are going to last," Loretta said.

"We don't have a license," Chris added.

"We'll get one, I know someone down at the town hall and they'll expedite it to us," Pam told them. "This is going to be wonderful."

"Mom, what about…Dad?" Chris asked and that question actually made his mother take pause for a moment.

"If your father doesn't like it, tough," she finally said. "Now come on, Stephanie, we don't have anything for you and we're going to need a dress for sure and a veil and shoes, oh, I've always wanted a daughter to do this with. Chris, you better get on getting some wedding bands, that'll be your task, let us take care of everything else."

"Mom, please don't do this," Chris tried one last time to stop his mom from going completely overboard. He and Stephanie were just going to elope and now they were getting an actual wedding? This was getting out of control and it was all happening so fast. First, he'd been accused of sleeping with Stephanie and now he was tasked with getting wedding rings? How had things spiraled so quickly? He wasn't even sure what was happening.

"Stephanie, can I come with you guys?" Frankie asked. "I'm not engaged just yet, though for all intents and purposes I am and I would _love_ to help you find your dress, everyone says I've got really great style and I can help you look so hot that Chris will want to rip the dress off you right there at the altar."

Stephanie bit her lip and looked away, "Um, yeah, sure."

"Stephanie, a word, please," Chris said, grabbing her arm and hauling her out of her chair and into the other room. He took them out of earshot of everyone in the kitchen and nearly shoved her into the wall, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Chris, your mother is insisting on this, you saw her, we can't stop her, she's going to go through with it whether we like it or not!" she hissed.

"I don't want to hurt my mom," Chris said, taking a look back at the kitchen. "You heard her, she's been waiting for me to get married for a long time now and if we get married and then just divorce and then she'll find out we're only doing this to save your ass…she'll be devastated. Do you even get that? This is my mother's _feelings_ we're toying with here!"

"I know that!" Stephanie told him. "You don't think I know what we're doing! Of course I know, but you tell me how to get out of this and we'll do that, but as of right now, you're not exactly having the best ideas, now are you?"

"You never even gave me time to think!" he told her.

"Time to think, think of what, you were floundering in there just as much as I was," she argued with him. "The moment you actually can think on your feet will be the _first_ moment you've actually thought on your feet."

"Shut up," he snarled. "We've got to think of something."

"What about your dad? Your mom seemed to hesitate a little when you brought up how your dad wouldn't like this arrangement. Maybe we can go to your dad or maybe when your dad finds out, he'll stop this whole thing and we can go through with the actual plan," Stephanie said. She wasn't ready to be married to Chris this weekend. Sure, she'd thought of doing the wedding thing to appease Chris's mom, but she didn't think it would be _this_ weekend! There was a huge difference from down the line and tomorrow.

"My mom can talk my dad into anything," Chris shook his head, "besides, my dad thinks it's a sham anyways, so if I didn't, he'd just have one more piece of ammo against me."

"Seriously, what is going on there?"

"None of your business," he told her, "we've got to think of another way."

"So help me out here!" Stephanie said, "I tried the pre-nup, we tried the marriage license, nothing short of me saying that I have to leave is going to stop them."

"That's in an emergency with the company! You can say you have an emergency," Chris exclaimed.

"Yeah, then your mom takes us down to city hall and marries us right now," Stephanie said and Chris groaned because that was _exactly _what his mother would do. "Got any more great ideas hotshot? You are worthless in situations like this, you know that, right, worthless!"

"You're even more worthless because you came up with this ridiculous plan!" Chris told her.

"You agreed to it!" she countered.

Suddenly and without warning, Stephanie's hand darted to the back of his neck and pulled him closer to her, her lips crashing into his with force. She tilted her head to access his mouth and pushed her tongue against his lips. So startled was he that his mouth allowed her tongue entrance and suddenly the kiss was getting a lot sloppier. Instinct and human nature addled his brain and he was returning the kiss, his hands groping for her waist and pulling her flush against him. Her hand became her arm snaking across his neck and his mind became hazy and it felt like the world was spinning off its axis. As suddenly as it began it ended and his eyes were wide and boring into Stephanie's, wondering what the hell that was for. Stephanie looked over his shoulder and he turned to see his mother and Frankie spying on them.

"Sorry," Stephanie said, "I guess the thought of marrying Chris made me need to kiss him immediately."

"Uh yeah," Chris said, still dumbfounded by Stephanie's kiss. It had been…he shook his head. Loretta grinned and linked arms with Frankie.

"Oh yes, this wedding is on."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, hope you enjoy the chapter, reviews are love so show me some. :)

* * *

"This is all your fault."

"My fault?" Chris asked. "If I can recall correctly and this gorgeous brain remembers things like that, this was all your plan in the first place. Chris, pretend to be my fiancé, Chris, let me come up to your family's house to keep up the charade. Stephanie, I don't think you realize that this is all your doing. Because it is. All of it."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, "But you don't have to be so…enthusiastic."

"I'm not, believe me, this is not me being enthusiastic," Chris said, pointing at his face, which sported a dull look of disdain. "Now I'm getting married to you, what, the day after tomorrow? This is unbelievable. I always thought my wedding would be something I had a hand in, not something thrust upon me."

"It still can be, it's not like I'm in love with you and want to stick with that 'til death do us part thing," Stephanie said, stepping into the bathroom to change. "Do you think I'm happy about this? I just wanted to get married in a stupid, little ceremony and now it's this whole production because of your family."

"You wanted to come here," he hissed. "I didn't invite you. You thought it would be a good idea, still think that, Princess?"

"I didn't realize your family was so pushy," Stephanie told him, coming out of the bathroom.

He stalked up to her and got in her face, "Don't you dare say a word about my family."

She realized that she had made a mistake and she sighed, "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I didn't mean it like that. I like your family, I really do, it's just, I'm not ready for this. This loving family thing is not my scene, it's never been my scene, so I'm just a little bit unfamiliar with it."

"It's okay," Chris said, taking a step back. "I've said some not kind things about your family so I guess we're even."

"Thank you," she told him gratefully, then turned around, "would you mind zipping me up?"

Chris stared down at her bare back, the back of her bra clearly visible and he gulped. She had a beautiful back. He remembered once on Raw, Austin had ripped her shirt off and she'd been in just her bra and he wished he wasn't remembering that moment right now. He reached out and was about to grab the zipper when he pulled away at the last moment.

"You know, if you're going out with my mom and Frankie, you might want to dress in something a little more casual. Not that you don't look good, you, well, you look good, that's not the problem, but they're probably going to have you walking and you might not be comfortable in this," he told her.

"Oh yeah, you're right," Stephanie said, turning around. "Thanks for the reminder."

"You're welcome," he said, noting how they could go from arguing to being civil so quickly. He liked when they didn't snipe at each other with any real venom, but then he liked when they could tease each other as well. Being around Stephanie was so confusing sometimes. He figured there was more to her than met the eye and he was right, but there was this strange desire to dig even more and see what he could find there, see if he liked what was there.

After all, he'd be married to this woman for the foreseeable future, until her father came to his senses and took the company back. He didn't know how long that was going to take and he'd rather be with her and not fight all the time than be with her and fight every second of every day. If he was going to be stuck with her, he might as well make the best of it and if making the best of it was being around her and getting along with her, then maybe he should do it for the better good.

"Hey, so do you maybe want to go out to dinner with me tonight?" he asked.

She turned and looked at him incredulously, the clothes she'd been rooting through disappearing from her thoughts, "Excuse me? Are you asking me out on a date? Look, I know I'm a damn good kisser, but I didn't think it would make you fall that hard for me."

"Oh yes, Stephanie, now I'm just crazy about you," he said drolly, "look, we're getting married whether we like it or not. I'm doing this huge favor for you and you know what, we don't know how long it's going to be for. If I'm going to be married to you, I want to know that I can have a meal with you where I don't want to wipe that stupid grin of yours off your face."

"So you want to go on a date."

"I didn't say date, don't put words in my mouth," he groaned. "I want to know that when we're living together that we can sit down and eat a meal in the same room without killing each other or getting pasta sauce on the walls."

"Fine," Stephanie said, "I will allow you to take me out to dinner and then we can see that we are compatible in that business-like way our relationship is going."

"Thank you," Chris said as a knock sounded on the door. "Yeah?"

"Is Stephanie ready?" Frankie asked. "We wanted to take her out and see if we could get her a dress or something!"

"She's coming," Chris said, shoving Stephanie into the bathroom. "Hold on!"

"We'll be waiting downstairs!" Frankie said through the door.

"Don't push me," Stephanie said as she kept the door partially open so she could continue to talk to Chris. "Your mom is making me get a dress. I was probably just going to get a white pantsuit or something, you know, something practical and tasteful."

"No, you're not going to get that, you're getting a dress," Chris said, "sorry to say, but my mom has wanted me to get married for so long so you're going to be kind of stuck, sorry."

"Great," she said, coming back out. "Okay, how do I look?"

He found his eyes gazing over her figure again and she looked as good as she ever did. Stephanie was attractive, he'd never dispute that, but he just didn't want to have to assess it all the time like he was doing now. "You look great, now go!"

"I'm going," she said, leaving the room and finally letting him breathe.

Stephanie walked downstairs and was almost immediately engulfed by Frankie and Chris's mother. They ushered her out to the car and before she could really get a word in, they were driving towards town, Loretta going on and on about this custom dressmaker who had these beautiful window displays. Stephanie recalled her first wedding with Paul and how she'd felt like a princess that day with the beautiful wedding dress and the quaint church and feeling like all the love in the world was swirling around their heads and hands and hearts.

"You're thinking awfully hard there," Frankie said as she leaned in closer to Stephanie. Loretta and Chris's aunt were talking to themselves now, giving Frankie and her a moment to really talk. "You thinking about my cousin?"

"Actually I was thinking about my first marriage."

"Oh, the first marriage, I've heard those are brutal," Frankie joked, "that's why it's always the first one though. You get like…a mulligan. It didn't work out, but you learn from your mistakes and now your second one will be even better."

"You'd hope so," Stephanie said, but she knew that this marriage wasn't going to be better; it wasn't even going to be a real marriage. It was an agreement that was getting blown out of proportion.

"Why did you get divorced?"

"Just wasn't the guy I thought he was," Stephanie answered with a shrug. "I guess…I guess you just think for a while that someone is right for you and then turns out they aren't. Unluckily for some people, they're already married by the time they figure this out. I was in that boat."

"So why Chris?" Frankie asked and Stephanie had to think on her feet (or her ass since she was sitting right now). "Not to say that my cousin isn't awesome, but why Chris?"

Because he was there, she wanted to say, but that would hardly be appropriate so she just tried to muster up whatever she could about her fiancé and say whatever came to mind. "He teases me, all the time and it's annoying. But I guess I saw underneath that. I guess I saw what kind of man he really was and he's funny and intensely loyal and-"

"And you sound like you're describing a pet," Frankie said, "what made you fall in love with my cousin? The juicy story."

Now she was really on the spot, "He's a good man. He's loving and kind and caring. He does things so unexpectedly, yet so wonderfully that you have to smile. In fact, all you really want to do around him is smile."

Wow, that even sounded good to her own ears and Frankie beamed and pretended to swoon as they arrived at this apparently amazing dressmaker. Stephanie had to admit, though, as they passed the window that some of the dresses were, in fact, beautiful. She stared at one for a minute, just picturing herself in that and damn it, she was still somewhat girly under all this business and fierce competitiveness and pretty dresses were pretty dresses. They walked inside and Loretta was already talking to a woman who looked to be in her late 40's or early 50's. The place had dresses about, not too many, but considering it was a small shop, there was really no need for so many.

"And this is the bride-to-be," Loretta said, pulling Stephanie to the forefront. "Do you think you could whip something up for her for Sunday?"

"Why don't we try on some things we have and I should be able to get it fit in that time, let me just get her measurements," the dressmaker, Ms. Easton, told them. Stephanie ended up standing on a stool while getting her measurements taken. Once she was done, Mrs. Easton told her to wait and she would have her assistant get her some dresses to try on.

"This is so exciting," Loretta said. "I always regret the fact that I never had any daughters and now I know I was really missing out on something here."

Stephanie laughed and tried to remain involved in all of this, but it was difficult knowing what she knew, knowing that she wasn't really going to be a part of this family forever. Usually when you go into a marriage, you think forever, but not here. It made trying on that first dress slightly difficult and as she turned to look at herself in the mirror, she barely recognized the person looking back at her. She knew Chris would go through with this wedding, reluctant or not, but she knew it wasn't really fair to him.

What was she doing? She loved a job so much that she was willing to go through _this_? She did love the dress though, if that counted for anything. It had a vintage feel to it with lace edging and an open back. She loved it and she loved the way she looked in it. "Oh honey," Loretta said, looking over her shoulder. "Never before have I seen anyone try on one dress and have it be the one, but I think this is the one."

"I agree," Frankie said as did Chris's Aunt Pam. "You have to wear this one, Steph, Chris will _die_ when he sees you in this. Oh my God, he's going to want to take you upstairs to the bedroom the moment he sees you."

Doubtful that Chris would want to do that, but she had to keep up appearances, "Yeah, I'm sure I'll be thinking the same thing when I see him."

The three ladies cooed at her behavior and it was unanimously (well, Stephanie didn't exactly agree, but she didn't exactly argue) that this would be the dress. Mrs. Easton pinned the dress where she would need to take it in and/or let it out and then they were out on the street again, walking through town. Stephanie was trying not to think of what was happening when Frankie called out to someone and Stephanie looked up to see Chris's ex-girlfriend.

"Hey guys," Charlotte said, "Stephanie, right?"

"Yeah, Stephanie," she told the pretty woman.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.

"We were getting Stephanie a wedding dress, she and Chris are getting married on Sunday. It's kind of like a birthday thing with Aunt Loretta," Frankie explained. It didn't take Stephanie more than two seconds to notice the slight look of disappointment on Charlotte's face. This girl had loved Chris and if that small look was any indication, she might still have feelings for Chris. Maybe she'd only come this weekend in the hopes that Chris would be here and they could rekindle what they had and here Stephanie was, ruining whatever chance there was for the two of them.

She needed to talk to Chris again.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks for all the reads and reviews, hope you enjoy the chapter, review if you so desire! :)

* * *

"Stephanie, you have to stay out here, walk around, but you can't come with us, we're going wedding present shopping."

Stephanie looked at where they were. It appeared to be a kind of open plan mall of sorts, with different stores housing different things. She found it weird to have this mall just out here randomly, but she didn't know small towns, maybe this was the norm. She was used to malls being huge and with hundreds of stores, not dozens.

"You guys, seriously, it's not necessary, Chris and I have everything we need back home," she said, acting like they sort of, kind of lived together. They were going to live together soon anyways and _she_ had everything she needed so she figured Chris would be the same. "We don't need gifts."

"No way," Frankie said, "believe me, if there's an excuse to shop, we're going to take it, but we want you to be surprised so you have to stay outside, Charlotte can keep you company, right, Char?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Charlotte said, obviously wondering how she got roped into this, but she didn't look too upset with it as she glanced over at Stephanie and gave her a sweet smile. She seemed like such a nice person and Stephanie hated what she was doing, which was a change. Usually didn't care who she stepped on to get what she wanted, but this was different, this wasn't business, not really.

"I know what I'm getting you," Frankie said, appraising Stephanie for a moment.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie asked, laughing because Frankie's face was so ridiculous.

"Seeing what size you may be, got it," Frankie winked at her. "We'll see you girls later."

"We'll meet here in an hour," Loretta said, "feel free to go shopping of course, just if you see us, walk the other way."

"Okay," Stephanie gave in because they were just so kind and warm and she found herself really liking Chris's family, even if they were pushy and constantly wanted to drag her places. Their intentions were always so kind, well, maybe not Chris's father, but she didn't know that situation well enough to really comment. Yes, his father was misguided on his opinion of Chris's work and how Chris lived his life, but it seemed like there were deeper issues there.

"So I guess it's just you and me," Charlotte said, looking down. "Chris's family is the best, huh?"

"Yeah, they're…actually pretty much what I expected, knowing Chris," Stephanie said as they started to walk around, not really looking at anything in the stores, but not looking at each other either. Stephanie felt awkward and she wasn't sure if Charlotte did, but if what she had assessed earlier was true, then Charlotte had to feel just as awkward as she did.

"Yeah, they're all the same," Charlotte laughed, "I'm not surprised they're pushing you guys to get married. They just get so excited."

"I can tell," Stephanie said. "So…you and Chris, huh?"

"Oh, yeah, I mean, don't worry," Charlotte said, "I'm not some weirdo stalker woman who is going to hate you or anything, it's been a _long_ time since Chris and I were together and it's not like I've lived this celibate life."

"You still love him?" Stephanie had to ask, she just had to know. If this girl still loved Chris and Chris still loved her, she couldn't go through with this. She would always have it on her brain that she was ruining something or delaying something. Even through her tough façade, she wasn't totally heartless, even when it came to Chris. The man was willing to go to great lengths to help her after all, even if he had demanded reparations in return.

"I mean, he was my first love, but really, Steph, I don't want you to feel weird about this. I love him in that 'the one that got away' type way. It's like, wistful because we had good times, but we've both grown up a lot in our time apart."

"Why didn't you…I mean, I know that you broke up when he decided to become a wrestler, but…why didn't you go with him or anything?"

"Our lives were just going in two different directions and he told me what wrestling would entail and I guess I just couldn't handle it. He knew I couldn't handle it and so he broke things off. Besides, I've heard what goes on, on the road and I just…I didn't think…"

"You didn't think he'd be faithful," Stephanie finished for her.

"I guess that was part of it," Charlotte said, "I also wanted to go to school and he was going to be traveling and everything and…we were young and stupid for getting engaged in the first place. I think it was just…I don't even know, we were in love and we thought we'd last forever, you know."

"Yeah, I get that, Chris is my second marriage, I was young and stupid with my first," Stephanie nodded. "He's not that type of guy though, I mean, you had to know that."

"The type of guy who cheats, you mean."

"Yeah," this much she knew. Chris was not one of the boys who went out every night and slept with some chick they met in a bar. He'd go out drinking, sure, his drinking exploits were well-known, but he wasn't a man whore.

"I know, I was just…I didn't understand wrestling, I guess, but you do, you understand it probably better than any other woman on the planet and I'm glad he has that and someone who is part of that and loves it just as much as he does," Charlotte said. "I'm really happy for the two of you. I like seeing people who are obviously in love with one another be together."

"We're that obvious?" Stephanie didn't know how she and Chris were putting on such a show. She figured they were passing, sure, but everyone seemed to seriously buy into their fake relationship. It was almost like wondering if anyone at all would see through them. Not that she wanted that, but she felt so false all the time that she almost wanted to be called out on it.

"A little, yes," Charlotte told her with a secret smile. "You should've seen the way he was looking at you when you weren't looking when we were at the party. He just kept staring at you intensely, like he couldn't keep his eyes off you."

Stephanie gave a forced smile. If only Charlotte knew that Chris was probably looking at Stephanie like that because he wanted to make sure she didn't do or say something stupid to embarrass him. Those weren't looks of love, those were looks of "don't screw with my family or else I'm throwing you out of here." But she just took in the sentiment and let it go. She had to change the subject soon or else she would go crazy.

She was saved though when she saw Chris walking up ahead. He spotted the two of them together and stopped in his tracks, staring between the two of them like they were the devils themselves. "Oh look, there's Chris," Charlotte finally said, "let's go over and say hello…unless you guys are doing some weird can't see each other thing? I know you said that the wedding was Sunday, but I don't know…"

"No, um, it's okay," Stephanie said as she walked over to where Chris was.

"Hey, Chris," Charlotte said, "I ran into your mom, aunt, and Frankie with Stephanie and they decided to ditch her to go buy you guys some wedding gifts."

"Oh," Chris said, relieved that Stephanie hadn't actively sought out Charlotte.

"I'm going to leave you guys alone, I'll have to find a wedding present of my own," she said, squeezing Stephanie's shoulder. "It was really nice talking to you, Stephanie, and it was good to see you again, Chris, um, do you guys have plans for tonight? I'd love to take you out for dinner, catch up, get to know Stephanie better if that's okay?"

Chris wasn't speaking so Stephanie took the reins, "Um, yeah, sure, come by around six?"

"Absolutely, bye guys," she waved and walked off, leaving Chris and Stephanie alone together.

"Hey," Stephanie said softly, "your family has gotten me a wedding gown and now they're getting me presents. Then I was stuck with Charlotte and Chris, I'm not sure this wedding is the right thing when Charlotte is so obviously still in love with you and you're still in love with her."

"Excuse me?" Chris asked, looking at Stephanie.

"I'm not blind and I'm certainly not stupid," Stephanie told him. "I mean, the way you look at her, it's obvious to me, but apparently nobody sees this. I mean, you guys were engaged for God's sakes and-"

"Steph, I told you to drop this."

"I know you did and I really had, but then I was talking to her and she's so nice, Chris, I mean, like the kind of nice that people write about in newspapers to offset the horrible news they have to read. She's _that_ kind of nice and you deserve someone nice and-"

"_You_ think I deserve someone nice? I thought for sure you would want me with the ugliest, sluttiest demon of a woman," Chris joked sarcastically. "Since when do you think I deserve someone _nice_?"

"You're not exactly what I thought, okay, God, must you ruin every moment that we've ever had ever," Stephanie scoffed. "I'm just trying to say that you probably deserve someone like that and not some woman who wants to keep her job."

"I thought we discussed this."

"We did, in terms of your family, but not in terms of me blocking the way to true love. I do not want that on my conscious. I already know I'm going to have a tough time getting into heaven, but I don't need to add this onto my plate as well," she explained. "I just hate that I'm seeing everything you have and could have and I'm being all bitch monster on you."

"Wow, acknowledging that you can be a bitch, I never thought I'd see the day this would happen," he told her.

"I'm trying to be serious here and every time I try to have a serious conversation with you, you act like you can't even handle talking to me," she told him. "You annoy me to no end, you know that, right? Here I am, trying to get true love back together and you are joking about me."

Chris laughed heartily, "True love?"

"Yes, true love, I _do_ think it exists, you know."

"And you thought Paul was your true love, that's unbelievable, I can't believe you actually thought that enough to marry the guy," Chris shook his head. "Let me tell you, the only true love he has is his belt."

"I wasn't talking about him," she told him, "I'm talking about you and Charlotte right now. I don't want to screw that up for you. Obviously she came up here to try and win you back, she probably missed you, wanted to see you and is using this as an excuse to catch up with you. I'm not saying she's being malicious, but that's what she wanted."

"Okay, so maybe that's what she wanted, but that's not to say that it's what I want."

"I see the way you look at her, you can't tell me that-"

"Stephanie, I am asking you nicely to quit being such a weird matchmaker, it does not become you to care about people so much."

"Your family is turning me soft," she groaned. "They're all so damn nice and it's rubbing off on me. By the time we get back, I'll be confessing to Trump this was all a ruse just because it's the right thing to do."

"Yeah right, never going to happen," he told her and he knew she wouldn't get _that_ nice. Stephanie didn't have that many good bones in her body to give it all up to be truthful about something she wanted.

"Okay, but I can do this for you and find someone else willing to marry me because you should be with-"

"Stephanie, I broke up with her for a reason," Chris told her. "I wasn't in love with her. I'm just feeling awkward now because I know she still has feelings for me. I don't have feelings for her anymore, but I feel bad because I used wrestling as an excuse for breaking up with her."

"What?"

"I proposed because my dad said it was the right thing to do. He had that plan, remember, I told you about it last night, everything in my life was supposed to be set and Charlotte was part of that. But I didn't want that life, that includes Charlotte. I loved her, yes, a _long_time ago, but I didn't want to marry her. Wrestling gave me the excuse I needed to make a break-up gentle.

"Jerk!" Stephanie said in disgust.

"Wait, what, now I'm a jerk?"

"First of all, way to be truthful to someone who loved you," Stephanie told him, "and second of all, you let me blather on and on about true love and stuff while you were standing there knowing that you broke up with her because you didn't love her enough to marry her. Thanks, jackass."

"I thought it was cute, you going on and on about true love," he told her.

"I don't know why I even try with you," Stephanie said, "I don't know why I even think that you are worth trying to help. I'm here, thinking that you're in love with this girl and if you are you should be with her and there you are, standing there, all smug and-"

Chris cut her off with his lips pressing insistently against hers. Stephanie was shocked for a moment, her eyes widening in surprise before they fluttered shut seemingly of their own volition and Chris's hands were suddenly on her waist, tugging her closer and damn her traitorous body was actually going closer to his stupid body and no, arms, don't go around his neck, don't…too late, they were around his neck as he deepened the kiss. They seemed to kiss for an eternity, at least that's what her brain was telling her and she wasn't even sure what the hell that feeling was creeping up her toes.

Chris finally pulled away, breathless and with her lip gloss on his lips, "God, sometimes you just need to shut up."

"Wait, so you were getting me to shut up?" her face twisted into one of horror and disgust. In actuality, he wasn't sure why he kissed her. Yeah, it was to get her to be quiet, but it was almost like those times they'd had their scripted kisses. Those were to get her to shut up too and the same feeling of urgency then had overtaken him now. He wasn't sure why he found that urge to kiss her so strong, but it had been there and now he was backtracking to save face. Stephanie with an upper-hand was a scary prospect.

He shrugged, "Worked, didn't it?"

"I hate you," she stormed off.

He laughed it off (awkwardly in his own mind) and started after her.

She wasn't laughing.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, much appreciated, hope you enjoy, reviews would be awesome! :)

* * *

"I'll have you know right now that I didn't want you to kiss me."

Stephanie rummaged through her bag looking for something to wear to dinner tonight. She had been fuming ever since Chris kissed her earlier and the anger hadn't subsided. What had even possessed him to do that? Not to mention she was still upset with the way he'd let her go on and on about true love only to tell her that he had wanted to break up with Charlotte. She didn't want to reveal any of herself to him and she'd put her heart on her sleeve and it disgusted her that she'd let him manipulate her like that. Sometimes she just could not stand him. He was always antagonizing her and doing things to cause her thoughts to go beserk, like kissing her.

"I didn't _want_ to kiss you either," Chris said while he lounged on the bed, looking at her.

"Of course you did!" Stephanie screeched at him, then lowered her voice, "you wouldn't have kissed me if you didn't want to kiss me, that's not how it works and you know it."

"I kissed you to shut you up, worked pretty effectively I think," he said smugly. "Also, haven't you ever heard of the saying, 'the lady doth protest too much'?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Stephanie asked, narrowing her eyes as she glared at him. "What are you trying to say to me?"

"I'm trying to say you're getting awfully worked up over one tiny, small, insignificant kiss," Chris told her. "I think a lot of women would _love_ to be in your position, but you go about posturing and acting so put out, I think you liked it."

"You're an idiot," Stephanie said, throwing a shirt at him and hitting him in his stupid, laughing face. "You have no idea what goes on in my brain so stop presuming things, you jackass."

"I don't think _you_ have any idea what goes on in your brain," Chris told her, enjoying the fact that she was getting so worked up. Stephanie was so easy to predict sometimes. There were other times where she was so difficult to predict, like the pattern of a leaf, you could never really tell where it was going to end up once it fell, but then other times, Chris knew exactly which buttons to push to get her angry.

He liked her when she was angry because it meant he was doing something right. To elicit so much anger out of her, it had to mean something. In actuality, he didn't know why he'd kissed Stephanie. He could say it was to shut her up and yeah, that was partly the reason, but if he admitted it to himself, he kind of just wanted to get a rise out of her, see what she did if he just spontaneously kissed her like that. Her reaction didn't disappoint either.

"Oh, now you're going to get all…whatever on me," she said, grabbing a blouse from her suitcase and holding it up.

"Why are you even spending so much time picking out clothes, nobody cares what you wear, least of all me," he told her.

"Don't talk to me."

Chris sat up and started crawling across the bed until he was kneeling in front of Stephanie. She lowered her shirt and they were face-to-face. She tilted her head to look at him, her mouth pursed and her eyes boring into his. "Why are you so upset?" he asked impishly and she shoved him backwards.

"I said don't talk to me," she told him. "I'm trying to figure out what to wear."

He kneeled back up and looked at her, "I can't believe you agreed to go out with Charlotte tonight. That's just going to be awkward and you know it."

"She was being nice," Stephanie responded, "not to mention, it'll give me the opportunity to see you feel uncomfortable and really, that's reward in and of itself at this point. You think you're so great, Chris Irvine, but you're not. Stop thinking so highly of yourself."

"You know, this is a little mean coming from someone who owes everything to me," he told her. "You have _really_ got to start being nicer to me or else I could blow your whole cover and then you'll end up sitting on your couch eating ice cream all day in your pajamas and is that something you really want."

"Don't try to blackmail me," Stephanie told him. "You have already agreed to the plan, you can't back out now."

"Why couldn't I?"

"Chris, stop it," Stephanie said to him, her voice lower now and more serious. "I'm asking you, as a…person, don't joke about something so important to me."

Chris cold tell that she was being serious and he felt kind of bad to threaten her like that. He had been the one to provoke her and so he conceded the argument with a flourish of his hand, but he made no attempt to move from his position kneeling on the bed in front of her. She stared at him for a few uneasy seconds before she went back to looking at different blouses. Chris kept watching her and she kept shifting under his gaze.

"Now what are you doing?" she asked him impatiently.

"Just watching you trying to pick out an outfit."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Don't you have anything better to do? Other people to bug? I mean, you came here to spend time with your family and the last thing you're doing is spending time with your family and instead, you're sitting here with me."

"They're out getting wedding stuff, I think they're getting a cake or decorations or something," Chris shrugged. "The only one here is my dad."

"And you would rather suffer with me than suffer with him," Stephanie said knowingly. Chris nodded and Stephanie looked at him thoughtfully. "I don't understand why he doesn't want you to be happy."

"I don't think it's that, I think he just thinks I could be happy somewhere else. He just wants what's best for me."

"But doesn't he get that what's best for you is inside that ring."

"No," Chris said, "can we not talk about him though, please?"

"Sorry," she said, but then she turned to him, "no, I'm not sorry. I'm not…I guess I'm not too familiar with the situation, but I just don't understand it. My parents would have been happy for me if I'd found somewhere else to be, if I'd become something else like a nurse or a lawyer or something like that. They would have been happy for me, why is it such a big deal for your dad to have you be something he thinks is respectable?"

"Because I'm his only kid."

"Doesn't matter," Stephanie said, "I don't think a parent should dictate their children's lives, especially when they're adults and can make their own decisions."

"Stephanie, please?"

"You're not a disappointment, you are a very successful wrestler with a bunch of side projects that your father should be thrilled about. I don't understand how being a doctor or getting married and having 2.5 children and a dog and a fence, you know the white picket fence kind is any more successful a life than the one you're leading-"

"You mean the life where I'm marrying a woman I don't love because she doesn't want to get kicked out of the business, you mean that successful life?" he broke in.

"That's inconsequential," Stephanie shook her head vehemently, "because that in and of itself…you have no idea what you're doing for me, Chris, you have no idea how much I appreciate everything you're doing for me, no idea. How can your father hate something like that? You have gone above and beyond and yes, I know you're getting something out of the deal as well, but still, you didn't have to do this for me."

"Stephanie…"

"No, I'm sorry, but your dad should know the truth about how…I'm just saying that you're not a jackass _all_ of the time."

"Well thank you for the compliment," Chris laughed. "You know, you might have forgotten because of the Charlotte dinner thing, but I was supposed to take you out tonight to see if we could coexist for the evening."

"Oh God, that's right," Stephanie said, "well, we can still see if we coexist while trying to look like a regular couple of people who want to get married. Are you…you're not, uh, disappointed that you're not taking me out, are you?"

"No, I was just reminding you, that's all. I can't imagine the chaos that's going to come with tomorrow," Chris told her, suddenly feeling uncomfortable talking about it. "I mean, my family is probably going to throw us some sort of rehearsal dinner or something equally crazy."

"Great," Stephanie sighed, "more reason for me to feel guilty."

"Hey, I'm in this too, it was my choice to accept your offer," he reminded her. "Don't you think it's funny how we can go from arguing to getting along in just a few minutes?"

"Is that what we do?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think it is. We go between hating each other-"

"I don't really _hate_ you," Stephanie admitted sheepishly. "I mean, hate is such a strong word, I _hate_ Paul, but I don't hate you. You annoy me, you bug me, you like to antagonize me, but I don't necessarily hate you…do you hate me?"

"No," he told her, "I don't really hate you either, but I will join in the hating Paul club, because I really do hate him."

"We have something in common, this is downright shocking," Stephanie said, pretending to act shocked. "There may be hope for us yet, don't you think?"

"I would say there's a tiny bit of hope," he told her, smiling at her and finding himself liking her smile in a way he didn't expect. "The smallest shred of it, I'd say."

"Oh yeah?" she told him and he could swear that she was flirting with him. But he'd never felt like he was flirting with Stephanie before so he didn't know if that was a flirtatious tone or not. And if it was, should he go along with it or not? And if she was, did he like that she was flirting with him?

"This much," he held up a small space between his index finger and his thumb, "you can barely even see it, but it's there."

"So there's a chance that we won't end up killing each other?" she joked and he nodded his head. "And here I was scared that we wouldn't make it through the wedding…oh God, I just had a thought, what if they want us to say our own vows, what in the hell would I say?"

"You're a pretty damn good liar, I think you could come up with something on the fly," Chris told her. "I know I can. I fell in love with Stephanie's snob-like behavior and the way she always belittles me and teases me."

"You can say that," she shoved at him lightly, but he caught her arm before he fell back and then pulled himself up so he was closer to her.

They were inches apart now and he was staring at her lips. His eyes moved up to her eyes and she was looking at him in confusion. He licked his lips and darted forward quickly, enough so he didn't have time to think about it and she didn't have time to pull away. His lips found hers and he snaked his hand to the back of her neck to hold her in place. He had enough time this time to really explore her mouth as she opened her mouth willingly for exploration. Chris tilted his head a little more to gain better access and Stephanie was stepping closer and wrapping her arms around his neck so she could press herself against him.

Knowing she wasn't going anywhere, Chris moved his hand from her neck and ran it down her back, his hand sneaking up the back of her shirt, feeling the bare skin of her back as she gasped softly against his lips. His hands moved up further, bunching her shirt against his hand. His hand teased the back of her bra, running against the clasp. Stephanie pulled away from him at that, "What are you doing?"

"I was going to uh…I'm not sure what I was going to do," he laughed for lack of anything else to do. He didn't even realize his hand was still on her bra.

"What are we doing?" she asked, laughing too because she didn't know how to react to his laughing.

"I was kissing you and you were kissing me back," he told her. "That was weird. I probably shouldn't have done that."

"Probably shouldn't have…but…we're getting married after all, married people kiss."

"Not when they're not together though," he said.

"Stephanie, Chris, Charlotte is here!" Chris's mom yelled up the stairs.

"We better go," Stephanie said, finally pulling away from Chris. "I'll just go as I'm dressed I guess."

"Yeah, we better go," he told her, running a hand through his hair as he turned to leave.

What the hell was happening to them?


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing, enjoy! :)

* * *

She was startled when his hand slipped into hers.

She jumped, not because it was cold, but because it was so unexpected. She'd tried to keep her distance from him ever since…whatever happened in their room. She didn't want to think about it because thinking about it meant that she would have to analyze it and that was entering dangerous territory. She didn't want to think about what might be happening because if _that_ was happening, well, she cringed at the thought. She was not going to fall for Chris Irvine, he was a thorn in her side, nothing more.

Except he was helping her keep her job by marrying her. Yes, he had benefits from the entire exchange, but that didn't change the fact that he was willing to marry her in order for her to keep one of the most important things to her. She glanced over at him, but he was talking with Charlotte as they walked down the street to the restaurant. Charlotte had thought a walk would be a nice way to work up an appetite and so they'd been walking for the last 20 minutes. Charlotte did most of the talking, but she and Chris had intervened where necessary. She wished she could guess what was going on in Chris's head. Grabbing her hand seemed to be almost impulsive on his part, which made her worry even more about what might be going on with them.

"Are you hungry?" Chris asked, looking over at her and squeezing her hand to get her attention.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, a little, yeah, I could eat," she nearly stammered and Chris furrowed his brow looking at her, but was drawn away again by Charlotte.

"We can go eat," Charlotte said, "it's just a shame you guys aren't staying longer. This town is so beautiful, I feel like I could walk around it all day. It's a nice change from where I live right now. What about you guys, where are you living?"

"We don't live together," Stephanie said without thinking and Stephanie recovered, "I mean, we split time between our homes in Florida and Connecticut, but when we get married, we'll be living together in Connecticut."

"Yup," Chris nodded, but Stephanie caught him biting his lip and she tried to remember if they'd had the conversation where they were going to obviously need to live closer to her work. He could keep his house, but he needed to live with her to keep up pretenses.

"It must be difficult going back and forth," Charlotte said. "I like to stay settled in one spot, you know. I always just pictured settling down and having that perfect house, you know, that perfect life every girl dreams of someday."

Stephanie never dreamed of perfect lives; she dreamed of wrestling and traveling and the world and she was beginning to see why Chris had not been in love with Charlotte. He wanted the exact opposite from her and he couldn't give up his dream to give her what she wanted. Stephanie tried to ignore the fact that it seemed like Charlotte was trying to be subtle and hint at what had happened between her and Chris. Stephanie didn't want to jump to such lofty conclusions.

"I like my life," Stephanie told her. "I mean, I know it's not perfect and I know it's not what a lot of people might like, but I like it. I love traveling and I love my work, I guess I was just raised in a different environment."

"That's true, I guess it is different for everyone. So what was it like when you two first met? Was it like sparks on fire at first or anything?"

"No," Chris took this one. "It was just a normal meeting. She was working for her dad and we were trying to come up with ways to bring me into the company. Stephanie wasn't yet with the creative team officially, but her father let her sit in on meetings because she has a really good creative mind. You should see what she comes up with. She helped me with my return even. She came up with the codes. But when I first met her, she was really sweet, not at all what I expected."

"What did you expect?" Stephanie couldn't help but ask. She was curious as to what he first saw in her. They'd obviously never discussed it, what with all the hatred between them, but she wanted to know what he'd thought of her, how he'd seen her that first time.

She could remember it too. She knew of Chris before this. Her father had no ban on watching WCW, in fact he encouraged it so that they knew what the competition was up to. They were almost neck-and-neck in the ratings and she'd seen Chris. She hadn't paid much attention to Chris at first; he'd been largely overlooked for bigger programs, but when he'd shown interest in the WWF, her father had seen dollar signs and immediately started pulling out the red carpet for him so she'd paid more attention.

Meeting him had been nothing special. He'd been polite, but reserved, probably nervous to be there and hadn't made much of an impression on her. Chris's response broke her out of her thoughts again and she had to be careful because she was starting to think too much. "I thought you were really sweet. I expected someone snobby and self-entitled, but you just wanted to make sure everything went well for me. I never forgot that, how welcoming you were."

Stephanie was surprised by his answer. He'd never given her any indication that's how he'd felt so she had no idea that he even thought of her that way. "That's sweet," Charlotte said. "So you guys didn't become attracted to each other until after your divorce, Stephanie?"

"Well, somewhat before," she said, "I mean, there were times when we worked together."

Chris's eyes turned sharply to her and Stephanie ignored them. "When you work so closely with someone, like Chris and I did, it's hard not to feel something for him."

"That's cute," Charlotte said as they walked into the restaurant and were seated. After they perused the menu and ordered, they went back to their conversation, "So why didn't you guys want a real wedding? I mean, I know it's your second one, Steph, but Chris, this one is your first, I would think you'd want something a little more showy than what you were originally planning."

Stephanie wondered if these two had ever discussed what a wedding would be like between them. They must have, she concluded. There was no way with the way Chris said their relationship had gone that they didn't talk about a wedding. She wondered what Chris _really_ wanted out of a wedding. There's was a wedding of convenience and he didn't love her so their sham of a wedding clearly couldn't be what he wanted. Would he want a big spectacle? Or would he want something quiet and small.

"Something small," Chris said. "Just a few people, really, my family, maybe Stephanie's family when they aren't being dysfunctional. I've never wanted a show-off wedding. I know I may seem like that kind of guy to most people, but you know that I'm not really like that. I think I would just want it somewhere where it's kind of isolated, but nice. I don't need any of that. As long as I love the woman, I would just want us to be happy and together."

Stephanie found herself listening to Chris dreamily and looking over at Charlotte, she was doing the exact same thing. She cleared her throat and grabbed her water to distract herself from thinking about how much she liked the idea of his ideal wedding. After their incidents earlier, she didn't need to be thinking about what a wedding with Chris would really be like. Though his dream wedding sounded so very, very nice.

"I think our wedding will be nice though," Chris raised his eyebrow towards Stephanie and she involuntarily shuddered.

"You guys are cute," Charlotte said wistfully. "I hope you guys are going to be happy."

Stephanie was getting more and more uncomfortable by the second and so she tried to change the subject, "So what was Chris like when he was younger?"

"He was the greatest," Charlotte gushed. "He was just the sweetest guy. You see him now and you think about how cool he is and that's how a lot of people see him I guess, but he wasn't like that growing up. He was kind of a dork, not like nerdy, but just dorky and very focused on his goal."

"I used to weight train a lot even though I just could not pack on any muscle for a while."

"Yeah, very gawky," Charlotte laughed. "He just focused a lot on wrestling and his goals."

Now Stephanie could tell that Chris was feeling uncomfortable and so she leaned over and kissed his cheek, taking his attention away from how he must be feeling thinking about how he'd essentially left Charlotte in the dust to go after his dreams. "I'm glad you were so focused because if you had never tried so hard and if you weren't so determined, we might never have met."

"I don't believe that," Chris told her and Stephanie looked at him confused. She couldn't tell if he was acting now or not and that was now making _her_ uncomfortable.

"What?" Stephanie asked, trying to deflect a little. It suddenly felt hot, especially with Chris's gaze on her so intently.

"I believe we would've met regardless," he told her. "I think when you have someone out there that you're meant to be with, you're going to find them no matter how long it may take. Even if I never became a wrestler, I would know who _you_ were and I would've found you."

"Stop it," she told him softly, resisting the urge to kiss him. God, she shouldn't want to kiss his filthy mouth. But he was just being so nice and no…it was an act, it was all an act. There was nothing between the two of them. Those kisses were like succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome. They were here, in this place, stuck with each other and they were bound to get a little loopy. That's all this was, them getting a little bit loopy.

"I think that's so romantic," Charlotte told them and Stephanie wished that Charlotte would cut it out too. She kept wavering between obviously wanting Chris back for herself and promoting this con.

"It is," Stephanie said, but she didn't _want_ to say it. Then she caught the smirk from Chris and she wanted to smack it right off his face. She knew he was acting and he could probably sense that he was getting to her and she pushed herself away from him and scooted her chair a little bit away. Leave it to him to make something that could be sweet into something that was annoying. "God, I wish our food would get here, I'm starving."

"Oh, sugarpuss," Chris said, leaning his chin on his hand. "I sure do love your appetite."

Stephanie wanted to shove him right off his chair, but she refrained and just gave him a strained smile as she went back to drinking her drink and looking around as Charlotte thankfully engaged Chris in some more conversation about their past lives. Stephanie was content to listen idly and sometimes just outright ignore them. How could she and Chris coexist with one another when they were always trying to one-up each other or push each other's buttons or God forbid kissing? Maybe she just needed to end this and just take a step back until her father inevitably came to his senses and bought the business back.

Their food mercifully came soon and they were focused on eating so the conversation went back down to a minimum and she wasn't forced to think Chris might be feeling more for her or might be playing her like a fiddle. Either way, she just wanted to get back to Chris's parent's house and go to sleep and forget this day ever happened. She only wished she could banish Chris from her room, but that probably wouldn't happen, but maybe she could make him sleep in the bathtub. A smirk crept on her face at the image of Chris huddled in a tub with a pillow and a sheet to cover him.

"What are you smiling at?" Chris's voice right in her ear and she jumped and then glared at him.

"Warn a girl when you do that!" she told him impatiently.

"Sorry, you just looked happy," he said and she noticed that Charlotte was gone. Taking inventory of Stephanie's look, he supplied, "She went to the bathroom. You were zoned out and then you were smiling. Thinking about my kiss, were you?"

She scoffed, "You wish! I was thinking about how I would love to make you sleep in the bathtub tonight."

"Ouch, why so vicious?" he asked her playfully.

"I don't know what you might try on me when I'm asleep, I don't think I'd want to chance it," she told him then turning back to her food.

"You're just saying that," he said, but then quieted down when Charlotte came back to the table. Stephanie didn't say anything to him for the rest of dinner, talking simply to Charlotte, who didn't seem to notice anything was amiss.

They eventually finished and headed back to their respective places. Chris and Stephanie were just in the door when Ted wandered into the foyer. "Is there anything the two of you would like to tell me?"

"Huh?" Chris asked.

"We have a visitor with us," Ted told the two of them and Chris looked at Stephanie confusedly, but she just shrugged. She wasn't expecting anyone, but God, she hoped Chris's mother hadn't called her parents to come to this ill-fated wedding. That would make this weekend all the more unbearable. Instead though, someone came out behind Ted and Stephanie and Chris's eyes both widened at the new person standing there.

"Hello, you two."

Paul Levesque.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Thanks for the reviews/reads/faves, hope you enjoy the chapter, review if you feel so inclined to tell me what you think. :)

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I thought I would come see the happy couple," Paul said, looking between the two of them. "That _is_ what you're calling yourself nowadays, isn't it? A couple?"

"Paul has told me some things that I think we need to discuss," Ted said, his voice clipped and curt. Chris looked to Stephanie and her eyes were wide, but there was something more in it, something more sinister. It was like she wanted to throttle Paul right this second and he didn't blame her because he wanted to do the same thing.

Chris took Stephanie's hand in his, which seemed to break her from her evil thoughts of maiming Paul. She looked at their clasped hands and then up to Chris's face, smiling softly at him. They were a team, never more than now, when Paul was threatening them. If he thought this was going to break them, he was dead wrong. When Chris made a commitment to something, he didn't back down so easily, Paul should know that by now.

"What kind of things?" Chris asked, looking between his father and Paul. The glare was the same for both of them. His father just could not stop from butting into his business. He'd been trying to control Chris for his entire life and he was so sick and tired of it. This was something he wanted to do and whether or not the feelings were real didn't matter, this was his choice.

"He said that Stephanie's job was threatened, I didn't know this," Ted flitted his eyes over to Stephanie. There was something like contempt in his gaze, probably because she'd made him look like a fool. "Said that the only reason Stephanie got to keep her job under Trump was because she was involved with you, something that came as a surprise to everyone."

"We didn't feel like telling anyone," Chris responded, his voice strong and firm.

"Seems convenient though, doesn't it?" Paul asked smugly. "The minute that Stephanie is in trouble, she suddenly turns up with this fiancé, one who doesn't have a ring for her or anything."

"I wanted her to choose it," Chris said, "there's nothing wrong with that, she's the one who'll be wearing the ring so why shouldn't she have a say in it. And what business is it of yours whether we're together or not? What the hell are you even doing coming into my parent's home?"

"I'm just concerned that Stephanie is trying to be deceitful and I wouldn't want your family to get burned by her like my family did. I'm simply trying to look out for your loved ones, don't you think that's noble of me?" Paul asked. "Where _is_ your mother? I would love to meet her, Ted."

"Don't you even dare!" Chris started to move forward, but Stephanie's hand was pulling him back into reality. "Don't you dare ever mention my mother again, you slime."

"Chris," Ted said sharply. "I think the man has a point. If this is some plan, do you understand what that means? It means you two are entering something that…you know your mother would be devastated. I knew nothing good could come from you going into that god-forsaken business. You had a great girl and a lot of business prospects and you didn't—"

"Stop it!" Stephanie finally spoke up, looking at the three men around her. She took a step closer to Chris and grabbed his hand tighter as if she was steeling herself. "All three of you need to stop it. Paul, what are you even doing here? Are you so fucking jealous that I've moved on and you haven't that you had to fly all the way to _Canada_ in order to, what, get your revenge?"

"That has nothing to do with it," he told her, his brow narrowing.

Stephanie turned to Ted, "Paul is my ex-husband, do you think that he has all love and admiration for me? Of course he doesn't. He's been trying to make my life miserable since I left him. Yes, _I_ left _him_, not the other way around and he's bitter because me leaving him meant that he couldn't get access to my power or my money because that's all he ever cared about. It sucks that you can't see that I'm happy with your son, that you think there's always got to be an ulterior motive. Do you know _why_ Chris and I didn't say anything? For this reason, because everyone is going to judge us. You know everyone talked shit about you, Paul, and you hated that and I didn't want that for Chris. With my father gone, it took all the pressure off and that's why we decided to make things public. So skulk around all you want, Paul and deride your son all _you_ want, Ted, but nothing is stopping me from marrying this man because I _love_ him."

Stephanie pulled Chris upstairs, slamming the door and then letting out a keening scream before she started undressing angrily, not even caring that Chris was right there and could see her. She stepped out of her clothes, picked them up and threw them in a rage at the wall. She grabbed a nearby pillow and threw it at another wall. Chris walked up behind her and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her against him, effectively ceasing her rampage.

"Hey, come on, no need to take it out on the room," Chris whispered in her ear.

"I hate that man," Stephanie said. "I hate him so much, I wish he would just…disappear forever."

"I wish that too, but I guess we won't be so lucky," Chris chuckled. "So was that the truth?"

"Was what the truth?"

"The money and the power thing," Chris said, "is that why he was really with you and has he been trying to make you miserable since you got divorced?"

"We used to fight a lot and he would say it all the time," Stephanie said, both of them unaware that Chris's fingers were rubbing around Stephanie's belly button. "He would just yell that I was good-for-nothing except my name and that when that went away, I'd be nobody."

"How could he say those things to you?" Chris asked, resisting the urge to go down there and kick Paul's ass. What had this woman been through when everyone was thinking she was a huge bitch? Stephanie was continually surprising him and he was starting to think her bitchiness was a defense mechanism put in place because of her jackass ex-husband.

"They were always during fights so I never put too much stock into them, but I don't know, I guess there's always a bit of truth to things people say, right?" Stephanie shrugged as she looked down at her feet, which were still in the heels she was wearing from dinner. No wonder Chris felt shorter than her. She kicked them off and sunk down into the carpet, Chris's arms still banded around her waist. She could feel his cheek against the back of her head and it was comforting in a strange way. She didn't want to break this hold just yet so she stood there.

"And what about making you miserable?"

"That's just his nature," Stephanie tried to reason. "He's just like that. You do something to him, he holds a grudge _forever_."

"I'm sorry."

"What for? It's not like you've been doing anything," Stephanie told him. "I mean, yeah, you make me miserable, but in a completely different way."

Chris could tell she was joking with him, but he let it go, "I should really just go down and beat his sorry ass. I think he's just mad that you've moved on and left him in the dust. He was lucky to have you in the first place and now that he doesn't, he has to act like an asshole because he knows he's not doing any better."

Stephanie dropped her head to her chest as she laughed, "You wouldn't have been saying that several days ago."

"The me of several days ago was a jackass too," Chris told her and could feel her body convulsing in laughter. "Despite everything, I had fun tonight and I'm starting to think that this marriage thing won't be so bad, it might even be…fun."

Stephanie turned around in his arms. "Fun?"

"We get along now so I'm not worried that every day together will devolve into a fight to the death, that's progress, don't you think?" he wiggled his eyebrows a little and she laughed. He was glad that he could make her laugh because after what happened down there, she so desperately needed it. "It's also nice to know that when you get angry, you're willing to go nuclear and blow up at everyone around us."

"Your dad just makes me so mad."

"He does have a point about the entire thing with my mom," Chris frowned and bit his lip. "She would be—"

Stephanie cut him off with her lips against his. It took him by surprise and he tensed a little before he melted into her kiss. She placed her delicate, yet strong hands on his waist, tugging his shirt up and he broke the kiss to lift it off. When she threw it away (without the gusto she had that pillow from earlier), Chris backed her up until the back of her knees hit the bed and she fell backwards. She scooted herself up the bed until she was laying flush on the sheets and Chris immediately followed, hovering over her as he started to kiss her again, his lips migrating from her mouth to her jaw to her neck.

"Chris," she moaned softly.

Chris lifted his head to look down at her, "Yeah?"

"What the hell are we doing here?" she asked.

"Well, I thought we might, well…you know," he told her, winking at her salaciously and she couldn't help but giggle and turn her head away. Chris leaned down kissed her, subtly turning her head so she was looking back up at him. He pulled away, "We don't have to, of course, if that's weird for you or anything. No pressure, really."

"Really?" Stephanie said, bumping up her leg to rub against something that was definitely coming out to play.

Chris licked his lips, "Sue me, I'm a guy, it happens, but you know…I'm finding…a lot of things about you that I like and I'm not talking about _this_, but…you're not what I expected, you know. You're not…you're not anything like I expected you to be."

"You thought that the bitch was how I was really?"

"Yeah, I admit, I thought you were like that. But now, I guess, I would have to at the very least consider you a friend and believe me, it loathes me to admit that to you," he joked, shuddering a little. "I think there was just a shift in the universe with that sentence."

"I told you I wasn't all bad."

"You're misunderstood."

"So are you," Stephanie said, "and I was the biggest offender. I had no idea how warm most of your family was, but how cold your father is to you. I had no idea that you struggled with everything between you and him and that…whatever it is—"

"We'll just never agree."

"I hate that for you," she reached up and brushed her hand against his cheek. "I hate that he doesn't see you like the rest of the world sees you. You're not a failure because you didn't go along with what he planned for you. You're a success because you followed your dream and made it happen."

"Thanks," he told her and his blush made it down his throat. "So…what is this between us then?"

"It's us…defying those who would think we are faking it," Stephanie said diplomatically, giving him a coy and flirty look. "I'm not saying I'm in love with you, but I don't hate you anymore and isn't that just as good?"

Chris gave her a look, but then it softened, "I don't hate you either. I rather like you and you're rather beautiful when you aren't being a horrible bitch with a complex."

"And you are quite handsome when you aren't being a blowhard and a jackass and trying to pick fights with me," Stephanie said, "but what are we going to do with Paul? Are we going to let him hang around?"

"Yes, we are," Chris told her, "he wants to come to our wedding, let him come. I think he's going to be in for a surprise."

"So are we doing this then?" Stephanie said, pressing her hand between his chest and her chest. "Are we going through with this because there's no turning back from this, Chris. There's no going backwards if we let this last piece of defense down."

"Well, you know how my theme goes, break the walls down."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone, hope you enjoy the chapter, reviews are welcome! :)

Also, I started a new story called, "Searching For a Former Clarity," so if you want more stuff to read, hope you'll read it! :D

* * *

"Morning."

"Good morning," Chris said, leaning against the counter and taking a sip of his coffee. Stephanie went around him and grabbed a cup to pour herself some coffee as well. The kitchen was empty except for the two of them, but they could hear Chris's mother and one of Chris's cousins talking in the next room. Chris scooted out of the way a little bit so she could get at the coffee maker.

"How are you?" she asked him, wincing as she heard her own voice. She sounded so awkward, like a teenager, and she hated that she sounded so nervous around this guy now. It shouldn't be like this.

"I'm fine," he laughed lightly, obviously picking up on her nerves. He reached out and brushed some hair behind her ear so it wasn't in her mouth while she tried to drink her coffee. "I'm sorry about last night."

"It's fine," Stephanie shook her head, wishing she could take back a lot of things about last night, but obviously couldn't. "It's not your fault."

"Well, it's my family, it kind of is," he told her and she had to laugh at that, a small one, just escaping her lips as she blew on her coffee.

_Chris leaned down to kiss Stephanie again, their kissing becoming more intense as the seconds ran by. She ran her tongue along his teeth, snaking it into his mouth as they dueled for supremacy. Stephanie could feel him pressing against her inner thigh and she groaned as she lifted her body up to rub against him tantalizingly. Chris muttered something unintelligible as Stephanie flipped them over so she was hovering over him._

"_I just want to take a second and say how goddamn beautiful you are," Chris told her, reaching up so he could pull her hair back and look at her face clearly. She gazed down at him with such brightness in her eyes that it took his breath away. He did a semi-sit up to be able to meld his mouth to hers again. She slowly lowered him back to the bed and he flipped them over again so he could get at her at his will._

"_Chris!"_

_Chris pulled away and looked apologetically at Stephanie, "Um, yes, Mom?"_

"_Can I talk to you for a moment, please?" Loretta asked him._

"_Give me a minute, Mom," Chris said, staring down at himself and knowing he could _not_ talk with his mother right now. "Steph? Can you see what she wants?"_

"_Yeah, sure," she told him as Chris gently got off of her. Stephanie stood up and grabbed her robe from the chair, slipping it on over her underwear as Chris disappeared into the bathroom to try and _relieve_ the tension. _

_Stephanie opened the door slowly and peeked her head out, "Hey, Loretta, Chris was just getting ready for bed, did you need something?"_

"_Hello, Stephanie," Loretta said and there was something in her tone, a slight edge to it that didn't used to be there. "I wanted to speak with Chris, if that's okay with you?"_

"_Yeah, um, hold on," Stephanie said, "I'll see if he's dressed."_

_Stephanie walked into the bathroom to see Chris splashing some cold water on his face. He looked up and at Stephanie through the mirror when he heard her enter the bathroom, "Hey, what did my mom want?"_

"_She doesn't want to talk to me, she wants to talk to you," Stephanie shrugged. "Are you okay to go out there?"_

"_Yeah, cold water and your mom interrupting doesn't make for a very horny guy," he laughed at her and she ducked her head. "I'll see what she wants." Chris came over and kissed her cheek as he walked back into the room, grabbing some pajama pants along the way and slipping into them before he went to the door. "Hey, Mom, it's kind of late, what's up?"_

"_Can I speak to you, privately?" she asked him._

"_Sure, okay," Chris turned to Stephanie, who was leaning in the doorway of the bathroom. "I'll be right back, Steph, just…I'll be right back."_

_Chris followed his mother down the hallway and into the upstairs den. She closed the door behind her as they entered and she glared at Chris. "What is really going on between you and Stephanie?"_

"_What do you mean?" Chris asked._

"_I talked to your father and he told me about your…friend who is here, Paul, and what he was telling your father about. He was saying you and Stephanie aren't really engaged, that you're not even a couple, what is going on, Chris? Why is she here? What is your association with that girl?"_

"_Mom, I love her," Chris told his mother, "I want to marry her, I want to be with her. That's all there is."_

"_What about what Paul said?"_

"_Paul is a jerk and Stephanie's ex-husband. He holds a grudge because he lost Stephanie after he used her for years," Chris said bitterly, "nothing he says should be taken seriously. He can't be taken seriously, ever. Stephanie and I, we want to be married, we really do."_

"_Okay," Loretta said warily. "Why would he hate her that much?"_

"_He used her for her name, that's all, he used her for her name and now he can't and he hates that he doesn't have the power anymore," Chris explained. _

"_I'm sorry," Loretta shook her head, "I think I owe Stephanie an apology as well."_

"_Actually, we're both really tired, so maybe it can wait until the morning, I can just tell her what you said," Chris told his mother, hoping he could get back to Stephanie and the mood wouldn't be dampened. He was still craving every part of her, and he didn't want another interruption._

"_It'll just take a second, I don't want her going to bed thinking I'm mad at her or anything," Loretta was already out the door before Chris could protest and she was walking back towards the room. Chris tried to intercept her, but she kept pushing him out of the way and he didn't want to come out and tell his mother he'd been planning to have sex and could she please leave them alone so his chances of getting laid would go up._

_Loretta knocked on the door again and Stephanie answered, "Is everything okay?" She looked to Chris and he shrugged helplessly._

"_I just wanted to apologize," Loretta said, "I know I just came off as standoffish a few minutes ago, but Chris's father talked to your ex-husband, and I should have known you can't trust someone's ex to be objective in matters like this. You're a wonderful woman, Stephanie, and I can see why he'd be so angry to lose you."_

"_Oh, thank you," Stephanie said sheepishly as Loretta reached forward to give her a hug. _

"_I know you said you were tired, but I'd love to have a cup of tea with you before you go to bed, just to talk about the wedding and everything, please, as a way to make it up to you, it'll only be 20 minutes."_

_Stephanie looked at Chris and his face fell a little bit. She looked at him with the same kind of disappointment, but turned back to Loretta, "I'd really like that, Loretta."_

Stephanie grabbed his hand, "We'll have time later."

"I haven't completely ruined things?" he asked her, his voice low as he took a step closer to her. "I thought for sure the mood had been completely ruined. I don't know, I guess because it's us we have to be in these crazy moods to even want to be around each other."

"I don't think life should be like that," Stephanie told him, gazing up at him. "The mood hasn't been ruined at all."

"Are you sure?" Chris asked. "I don't know what's going on between us, Stephanie. I really wish I could explain it, but it's like, I want to be around you all the time now, is that normal to feel that way?"

"I guess because it's how I feel too," Stephanie said, then looked out the window and back to Chris. "I think…I think before we have this wedding, we need to sit down and really talk about what this all means. I mean, it's tomorrow, we're going to be married tomorrow, and with whatever is happening with the two of us, I think we really should talk."

"I agree," Chris said as his eyes took in her lips, probably tasting like coffee and sweetness, if last night was any indication. "Would it be okay if I kissed you right now?"

"That is possibly the sweetest thing I've ever heard," Stephanie told him, "of course you can kiss me, you're my fiancée after all."

Chris grinned, and it was luminous, as he leaned down to brush his lips against hers. Stephanie put her coffee cup down on the counter without breaking the kiss and deepened it, pressing her hand to his torso. He pulled away a moment later and leaned his forehead against hers. They shared a quiet moment, trying to take in this sudden rush of emotions the both of them felt. Things had changed drastically in the last few days, and they were both struggling to catch up to the staggering feelings they were both experiencing.

"I really like doing that," he told her.

"And who would have thought you'd ever say anything like that to _me_ of all people?" Stephanie asked him coyly. He laughed and leaned in for another kiss, bolder this time, firmer, more sure that she wanted this, and he wasn't just imagining things.

"So, you know, nobody is probably going to bug us right now," Chris said, "if any of that mood you were in last night is still there."

"Aren't you two adorable?" Loretta said as she came into the kitchen. "Are you two hungry, we have a lot of food in the fridge from the other day, lots of leftovers. I could make you something if you want too. Anything you want, you can name it."

Chris pulled away from Stephanie, whispering to her, "She has the absolute worst timing, I'm sorry." Chris was looking at her apologetically. His mother could not have come at a worse time. He was only starting to figure out what his feelings for Stephanie were and it felt like everything was coming in to ruin it.

First, there was his ex-girlfriend, and he was very aware she still had feelings for him, even if Stephanie never said anything about it. Then there was his father, always his father, doubting every decision Chris ever made, constantly wondering what could have been for his son. Then here comes Paul, trying to break everything apart like he usually did. Finally, his mother, his wonderful, beautiful mother was cockblocking him at every turn. It was almost like the world was conspiring against him, preventing him from exploring whatever he and Stephanie had going here.

The thing was, the feelings weren't just going to stop because everyone else was around them. Stephanie was nothing like she projected herself to be. She was warm, caring, and passionate. The fire he saw in her face last night, the vigor with which she tried to defend him, stood behind him and his decisions. Then there was her face when they'd been on the bed, the way she looked at him, the way she regarded everything about him. There was so much more to this woman than he'd originally thought, and every moment she showed a new facet of herself, he was shamed over the way he'd believed her to be originally.

Stephanie just laughed at him and then turned to Loretta, "I think we're good on the coffee for now, Loretta, but thank you, Chris and I were actually going to take these mugs back up and drink them on the balcony in our room. I really haven't gotten to enjoy it yet, and I thought it would be nice for Chris and I have some time to ourselves."

"Oh, of course, but here," Loretta grabbed a couple croissants sitting in a box on the counter, "I insist you have these, you need something to eat to get your day started."

"Thanks, Mom," Chris said, grabbing one as Stephanie grabbed the other. Stephanie started walking out of the room while Chris followed her. She added a little extra sway to her hips as she walked and Chris couldn't keep his eyes off of her. "So you want to have breakfast on the balcony."

"No, silly," Stephanie said, falling into step with him as they climbed the stairs.

"Huh?"

"I'm seeing if we can capture what we had last night and I think I just bought us some time."

Chris quickened his climb up the steps.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Thanks for reading, leave a review if you're so inclined! :)

* * *

"I think our coffee is cold."

Chris laughed and kissed her forehead before he burrowed down into the bed even more, pulling the comforter over the both of them, like if he did, anybody else would cease to exist. He couldn't believe the emotions this woman was eliciting out of him. Was it only days ago he'd made her all but beg on her knees to go with this insane plan of hers? How, in such a short amount of time, had she gotten so under his skin?

It all felt so whirlwind, and now he was going to marry her. It wasn't as scary as it once seemed, but he knew he and Stephanie needed to talk about things, about what they were, about what was to come, but he wanted to enjoy this moment with her. He'd always known she'd be a tiger in bed, but he never could have known how playful she was. Stephanie was a tease, but in a good way. She gave as good as she got, but she was fun, and cute, and damn was she beautiful. He resisted the urge to lift the sheet just to look at her naked body.

"I think so too, but we can always get more…later," he added because he didn't want to move right now. She didn't seem to want to either as he could feel her fingers tracing his side, tickling his skin to the point where it was nearly maddening.

"Later, huh, does that mean you want to stay in bed for a while?" she teased.

"Yes, that's exactly what it means, I wouldn't mind going a few more rounds with you, actually," he told her, wiggling his eyebrows as her laughter pierced his senses again. How could he have every thought her breathy laugh was shrill? Or that her husky voice was screechy?

"I don't think we're going to be allowed to stay in here all day, if your family is any indication," she joked.

He chuckled, but then pretended to act indignant, "Hey, don't you go talking about my family, McMahon."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Stephanie pretended to be apologetic. "I'm surprised your mom hasn't barged in here to ask if our croissants were good. She means well though, your family is really nice, I like them."

"They like you too," Chris told them, "well, most of them anyways."

"Do you think you and your father will ever see eye-to-eye?" Stephanie wondered. "I mean, I don't mean to bring it up, but I can see how much it affects you, and I don't like that he thinks you're wasting your life."

"I don't know, but I really don't want to talk about it."

"Okay," she gave in.

"We should talk about us though," Chris sat up and stared down at her, shifting his body so he was sitting facing her. "I mean, we should really talk about what's going on between the two of us. A few days ago, I thought you were the biggest bitch on the planet, but now we're…I'm not even sure what we are, but we should really talk about what's happening."

"I agree," Stephanie said, sitting up, the sheet around her falling and leaving her topless.

"Oh God," he groaned, "can you cover up because there's no way I can talk to you when you are topless."

She giggled and grabbed his t-shirt, which was hanging precariously off the side of the bed. She slipped it over her body and let it hang loosely against her frame. "There, is that better?"

"Much, thank you," Chris said, "so what the hell is going on between us, Stephanie, what's changed?"

"I think it's our point of views," Stephanie started, "I mean, before, we didn't really know each other, not really. I think we thought we knew each other and we were content to put each other in these boxes, like I thought you were a jerk, so everything I saw you doing somehow translated into you being a jerk, and you thought I was a bitch, so everything you saw me do you put into the bitch box."

"So now I don't see you like that? And you don't see me as a jerk?"

"No, I don't," she took his hand and cradled it against her chest, not in a sexual way, but just to have him near, to have the contact between the two of them. She brought his hand up to kiss his knuckles, the skin rough against her soft lips. "It's different seeing you with your family, you became a real person to me."

"You did too, when you stood up to my father, I mean, nobody has ever done anything like that for me before," he shook his head as he thought about it. He was still a little in disbelief that Stephanie would actually stand up to a person she hardly knew, and it was over him of all things. She was so fiercely beautiful. "I can't believe I didn't let myself see it before."

"You see it now," she told him, "and that has to be enough, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but where does that leave us now?" Chris asked. "I mean, we're getting married tomorrow for the foreseeable future, but what does that make us? Are we dating now, for real, just with the whole Mr. and Mrs. title attached?"

"Well, I mean, if you would want to try with me," Stephanie shrugged. "I guess this whole thing is convoluted. I like you, Chris, I'm so attracted to you, am I in love with you? No, I'm not, but I can see myself getting there, what about you?"

"Same," he told her, hiding a smile that threatened to break his face. She thought she could fall in love with him. It was a relief because he could feel himself falling so quickly for her, and he wasn't that far off from loving her, he could feel it.

"I still feel bad though, now more than ever, for what we're doing," Stephanie confessed to him. She looked down at his hand, ashamed to look up at her face. "When this started, I just wanted a way to stay in the company, I just wanted my job to stay the same until my father came to his senses. I never expected feelings to come into it. I thought I could stay the same person, but I'm not the same person. The me that I am right now is constantly thinking of the hurt your family would experience if they knew the truth."

"We're not going to tell them the truth, as far as they're concerned, we're in love, and hey, if we get there," he told her, squeezing her hand, "then there won't be anything to tell at all. We can just be ourselves."

"But I just feel like we're deceiving them."

"We aren't," he assured her. "I'm falling for you, you're falling for me, we just had some mind-blowing sex, I think that we're going to be okay. Our biggest problem right now is your stupid ex-husband, but I think what just happened refuted most of his words."

Stephanie wished she could be as flippant as Chris was being about the lying business, but she wasn't. She couldn't be. It was eating up inside of her. She didn't want to hurt anyone. She didn't want to be that bitch Chris originally thought she was. And this was all over a job. Being here had really taught her how family should be. It should be everyone sticking together and sticking up for each other. When her father sold the company, none of her family had come to her aid. Her father hadn't given her a second glance, her mother, while still trying to keep in tough, never brought up work, and her brother couldn't care less. They were disjointed, not whole like Chris's family.

"Oh yeah, him," Stephanie fell back against the pillows. "How are we going to get _him_ away from us?"

"Make out in front of him?" Chris asked, coming down to face her again.

"Stephanie!" A knock came from the door. "Are you ready?"

"Huh?" Stephanie was confused and she called out to Chris's cousin, "Um, ready for what?"

"It's your bachelorette day of fun!" Frankie said from the other side of the door. "Is my cousin holding you hostage in there! Because if he is, I will send in a rescue mission."

"He's not holding me hostage," Stephanie said, but Chris grabbed her around the waist and pulled her body into his.

"Yes, he is!" Chris called out and Stephanie slapped him on the chest. "I'm not going to let her go!"

"You're going to have to if you don't want me to break down this door with my awesome strength…unless you two aren't decent, in which case, this is really gross right now!" Frankie chuckled.

"Only one of us is semi-decent, and it's not her!" Chris called out. Stephanie's jaw dropped as she buried her face into Chris's neck, her skin heating up from embarrassment. Chris grinned at his ability to make her blush so much.

"Oh gross!" Frankie said. "You're disgusting, Chris, tell Stephanie to have herself ready in half an hour, we're taking her out for some fun, and we're not taking no for an answer. I will drag her out here naked if she's not ready!"

"I'll be ready!" Stephanie called out, her voice slightly muffled as she only barely moved her head from Chris's neck. They heard Frankie move away from the door and Stephanie went back to burying her face into Chris's neck. "Great, now she's going to go tell your mom and your aunt all about what we were doing in here."

"I don't care," Chris told her, "they thought we were having sex before, might as well let them think it now when it's actually real. Besides, I really don't want you to get out of this bed. Maybe I will hold you hostage."

"Oh, no," Stephanie said, "because if we spend the entire day up here, I will eventually have to go back down _there_ and see all the knowing whispers and sly looks from your family. At least right now, they can think you're joking, but if we stay up here all day, nope, not going to happen."

"So when we do have our honeymoon, we're really going to have a honeymoon then?" Chris asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"You're completely insatiable," Stephanie pushed herself off of him, but not before she pressed a soft kiss to her neck. "You need to keep that piece in check, Irvine."

"I'm just asking a serious question about our marriage," Chris told her, letting her get off of him. She was not wearing any bottoms, and the things her body was doing to his body, just by looking at her, should be illegal. She was so damn beautiful and as she bent over to pick up her clothes, he really just wanted to grab her by the hips and bring her body right back onto his. She looked over her shoulder at him and she gave him a look.

"What are you staring at?"

"That fantastic ass," Chris told her, "I'm sorry, but if you don't get in that bathroom now, I'm taking you right now."

Stephanie pretended to look aghast and quickly grabbed some clothes from her suitcase before she started running playfully towards the bathroom. She threw him a coy look as she passed by the bed, and Chris couldn't take it anymore, he had to have her again, his cousin, mother, aunt, whoever be damned. He hopped out of bed and grabbed her right as she got to the bathroom door, yelping in surprise as his arms banded around her waist. He swept her up into his arms and brought her into the bathroom, even amongst her protests.

"Chris, I'm going to be late!" she tried to protest, but it was to no avail.

"Then you're just going to have to be late."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone, hope you enjoy this chapter, and review if you can, that'd be great, thanks! :)

* * *

"Sorry about that back there I didn't know what you were doing."

Stephanie shook her head in dismissal, "It's okay, you didn't interrupt anything." She knew it was a bold-faced lie because she certainly _was_ interrupting something, but she still had a sense of propriety, and would rather her…fiancé's cousin didn't know what they were doing, or the rest of his family for that matter.

"Oh I'm sure I didn't," Frankie said knowingly.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie asked in amused exasperation.

"You've got that glow, so yeah, I think I know what you were just doing in that bedroom, I mean, in the morning too, wow, Stephanie, I never figured you for that kind of girl," Frankie winked at her, but it only made Stephanie laugh and blush even further. "God, nothing gets past this family, does it?"

"Not a chance," Frankie shook her head. "So hey, what's with the dude that came yesterday? I mean, I know he's Paul Levesque, your ex-husband, I mean, I watch your shows and everything, of course, but what's he doing here? I can't imagine it's to give you his blessing."

Stephanie stared at Frankie for a moment. If she could trust anyone here with the same vigilance that she now trusted Chris, she knew it would be Frankie. She didn't seem to judge, and she had a really good head on her shoulders. She really wanted to unburden a lot of what was on her mind with someone. She could do it with Chris, but he would just reassure her, and she needed a neutral opinion.

"Hey, do you think we could talk?"

"Right now?" Frankie looked at her watch. "We were going to go soon, and I think my mom and Chris's mom are anxious to get our day underway."

"What are we doing anyways?"

"We're going into Winnipeg, and we're going shopping for a lot of fun things, then we're going to have a really expensive dinner, then we're taking you to this club that my friend owns. It's going to be fun, and don't worry, no strippers because that's kind of creepy."

"Thank you for that," Stephanie said.

"We're taking the van, so we could sit in the way back and talk low," Frankie suggested, "or is this a really sensitive matter?"

"It's kind of sensitive, but…well, I guess we could talk in the van," Stephanie said, "it's just, after hearing it, you might want to throw me out…on the freeway…while the van is moving…"

"Oh come on, do you take me for vicious?" Frankie asked her, gesturing towards herself. She was smaller than Stephanie, but she was part of Chris's family, and she figured they all possessed the same toughness that he did. Chris was one of the strongest people she knew, and she wasn't just talking about physical strength.

"Yes," Stephanie told her, and Frankie guffawed and held her hand up for a high five. Stephanie slapped her hand playfully. "I guess we can talk in there. I just need to get some things off my chest, and if I tell Chris, he's just going to tell me what I want to hear."

"He has a habit of doing that," Frankie said as she linked arms with Stephanie, walking out to the van where Chris's mom, aunt, and some other family members were waiting. Frankie paused for a moment, taking inventory of the van and she let go of Stephanie and ran to open door in the back. "Hey, you guys, it's pretty cramped in here as it is, Stephanie and I are going to take my car, we'll follow you."

"Are you sure?" Loretta asked.

"Yeah, it's fine, I know where we're going, and I have my phone, it just seems smarter to take more than one car," Frankie said, glancing back at Stephanie and sticking her tongue out a little. Stephanie was finding that Frankie was someone she wanted in her life in spite of who she was related to. She was funny and warm, and kind of like a female version of Chris.

"Okay, we'll meet you there then."

"Great," Frankie ran back over to Stephanie and grabbed her hand, leading her to her car. "This way, we can just talk and not have to worry about anyone hearing us or interrupting us. I'm curious now about what you need to say that could potentially make me want to throw you out. You didn't cheat on Chris, did you?"

"No," Stephanie said quickly, but in her head, she was telling herself it was much, much worse than cheating. Hell, she couldn't cheat on Chris because she hadn't even been with Chris before this week. She'd never imagined the feelings she was feeling would ever come into play. Chris was something she'd never expected, what was happening between them was something she expected even less.

"Good, _then_ we'd have a problem," Frankie laughed as they got into her car. After they were on the road for a little bit, Frankie turned her head briefly to Stephanie and asked, "So what's going on? Is everything going alright between you and Chris? You guys seem happy."

"We are happy," Stephanie said, then paused a moment so she could figure out how to proceed. "It's just a recent development is all."

"Recent development? You guys weren't happy before?"

"We…weren't exactly together before this week…"

Frankie coughed a little and if she'd been drinking something, she would have spit it out, "What are you talking about? You guys are getting married _tomorrow_! You said you've been together for months now and—"

"We lied…well, I lied, Chris went along with the lie," Stephanie said, gripping the armrest as she took a deep breath and knew she'd have to explain. "When Trump bought the company, he wanted to fire me. I couldn't be fired, working for the WWE is all I've ever known, it's what I love more than almost anything in the world. My family pretty much abandoned me and if I was fired, I'd have nothing to do, nothing I could go home to. I was desperate. Chris happened to be in the room with me, along with Paul. Trump said that as a McMahon, I wouldn't be working there anymore so…I weighed my options and told him I wasn't going to be a McMahon anymore, I was going to be an Irvine."

"So…all of this, everything we're doing is fake?" Frankie asked, an edge to her tone. Stephanie could sense the anger creeping up into her. "My aunt is thrilled that Chris is getting married, and all of this means nothing to you two?"

"It didn't, not at first," Stephanie added quickly. "I begged Chris to go along with it. He agreed after we agreed to some terms."

"Terms?" Frankie scoffed. "Oh my God, so what kind of 'terms' did my cousin agree to?"

"Well, he hasn't really outlined them yet, he said he would think of them later, and I told him I'd give him anything he wanted. I'm sure he would have said he wanted a title reign, creative control, I offered him cash. What he really wanted me to do was beg."

"Beg?" Frankie asked incredulously. "What do you mean beg? He didn't like…force you to have sex with him, right? I mean, that's gross."

"No, he wanted me on my knees…begging. And he recorded it so when this was all over her, he could show everyone."

"Wow…that's so cruel," Frankie said, "not that what you did is right. So you're actually going to go through with this farce? You come here, and you manipulate and lie to my entire family, and we planned this entire day for you. We did all of this for you, we got you a wedding dress, we're planning a _wedding_ all for you, and you're just lying to us! I can't believe this. I can't believe Chris would go along with something like this. I don't even know what to think!"

"I'm sorry, I came here, and I expected to hate it, I hated Chris," Stephanie told her, "I hated being around him, but I had no choice, there was nobody else, nobody else willing to help me, but…but being here, everything has changed, and I'm…everything is different now."

"Different how?" Frankie asked suspiciously.

"Chris and I…we've been talking, and we've been just getting to know each other, and everything is different now. I don't know how it happened, but just being around him, everything feels different. I know I'm not being as articulate as I want to be. I wish I could explain how I feel, but I'm not exactly sure how I feel."

"Let me take a guess," Frankie paused, "you're in love with my cousin."

"I don't think I'm there yet."

"Who's to say you haven't been there for a while?" Frankie asked. "When I met you and found out about you and Chris, I said it was obvious after the way you two worked together, and I wasn't lying. I've watched the two of you. You guys have personified sexual tension. Maybe this kind of pushed you together."

"I really, really like him, but love?"

"Have you tried looking at it from the perspective of someone who might be in love?" Frankie asked.

"Not really."

"So are you guys going to get married tomorrow? You know this is weird, right? This is something out of a movie," she laughed, "the two of you are falling for each other, but now you're going to make the ultimate plunge. I feel like there should be some kicky sidekick…oh God, _I'm_ the kicky sidekick, aren't I?"

"Well, I was hoping…"

"I don't think it's right what you guys are doing, just so you know, but I can't control what you do, and if you guys are having a good time, and if you're actually together…wait, are you guys _together_?"

Stephanie blushed again, biting her lip, "Yeah," she answered quietly.

"Then maybe…I don't know, maybe marriage wouldn't be such a horrible thing if you guys want to be together and it'll save your job."

"The thing about it is…I like you all so much," Stephanie said. "I've never had a family like this. My family hasn't even called me since I've been here. But you guys, you welcomed me, and you've made me feel so wanted and loved, and I haven't had that for a really long time, and I liked it, and I like you and Chris's mom and your mom, Chris's dad, well, not as much, but I hate that I'm hurting you."

"You'd only hurt them if they knew," Frankie told her.

"You think I should keep it a secret?" Stephanie was so sure Frankie would tell her to fess up, to let it all out. Actually, she was expecting Frankie to be pissed, but maybe she was right about the whole love thing. Maybe she and Chris had been obvious. Her brain quickly swept over their entire time working together, and yes, she could see where people might think they were into each other, maybe even that they were secretly together. She'd been with Paul so maybe she'd been blinded.

"I just don't think everyone needs to be hurt when you and Chris could possibly end up here as it is. Aunt Loretta really, really likes you. She wants you to be her daughter-in-law, although at this point, I think she just wants a daughter-in-law, but she likes you, and why put her through unnecessary hurt?"

"It just feels wrong."

"It _is_ wrong, that's why it feels wrong," Frankie told her, "look, I want to be mad at you, but my cousin loves you, I believe it. I can see it with my own two eyes when he's looking at you. You guys had us fooled because you guys are as real as they come right now."

"Maybe we should just postpone the wedding."

"You could," Frankie told her, "if you really wanted, but you'd have to have a good reason for it. And I'm guessing Paul is here because he suspects the truth?"

"Yeah, he does, so we're kind of stuck in a corner here."

"I wish I could be of more help to you," Frankie admitted. "Still, I think you should just go through with it, and then let the chips fall where they may. You never know, the two of you could end up ridiculously happy with each other."

"He's already making me ridiculously happy," Stephanie gazed down at her hands, just remembering the way Chris had kissed her knuckles before leaving. It was so chaste, yet so endearing. She could hear Frankie laughing and her head shot back up to look at her.

"And you say you don't love him."


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and everything, glad you're enjoying the story. Enjoy the chapter! :)

* * *

"Chris, I want to talk to you."

Chris closed the fridge slowly and turned around. "What is it, Dad?" His voice held an edge to it, one that had been present for years. He actually kind of wished Stephanie was here. She was fearless, and she probably would have stepped in front of him like the firecracker that she was.

"I want to talk about this man, Paul, and what he said. I want to find out what this woman really wants with you. She's not here to try and talk her way out of it—"

"You mean she's not here to call you out on your bullshit, right?" Chris said, crossing his arms and taking a defensive stance with his father. Stephanie might be a spitfire, but Chris wasn't one to stand back and take it either. His father had always been critical of him, making it difficult to have any kind of relationship with him.

The funniest part of it all was that his father was a professional hockey player. He, of all people, should know what it was like to chase after a dream that so many said was impossible. Chris was a damn good wrestler, plus a damn good front-man to Fozzy. He loved what he did, people were entertained, so why did his father think he needed some kind of "normal, stable" life? He wanted the life he had, he always had wanted it, and it was his, and he loved it.

"She's got a mouth on her," Ted said.

"Don't talk about her like that," Chris immediately cut his father off before he could say anything more. This strange, new feeling of anger bubbled up inside him. Where once he had felt this kind of vitriol for Stephanie, now it was because someone was insulting her. He didn't want anyone talking crap about her. That was a revelation when he was the one who talked the most crap. He was so wrong though, and suddenly, he felt horrible about how he'd treated her. He needed to apologize.

"I see you're willing to sell this farce pretty deeply."

"There's no farce," Chris said, and now, right this moment, there wasn't. There was only this overwhelming feeling of defending his…girl. What was she? Fiancée? Lover? Friend? Something infinitely more he couldn't yet define? Whatever she was, she was his, and she was going to stay his. He wasn't willing to give up this feeling for anything in the world, and certainly not because his father wished it.

"Let's be honest here, Christopher. You come here with this woman, who you say you've been with for months, but none of us have ever heard of you dating her. Suddenly, you guys are engaged, and you're just about ready to get married. Then wait, her ex-husband shows up and corroborates what I've been thinking all along. You're faking it, and seemingly so she can keep her job. Is this what you've been doing while you're away? Is this how you're living your life now? Selling yourself out to someone so they can keep their job? Is she that much of a whore she's willing to do that?"

"I told you to stop talking about her, and if you insult her one more time, I swear to God, Dad, I will not be held responsible for what I do," Chris said through gritted teeth.

"You're marrying a woman you barely even know, I'll say what I damn well please!"

"No, you won't!" Chris yelled at him. "Do you think that his precisely why I don't let you in on my life? Because you're going to swoop in here and talk crap about Stephanie! You don't know her, you don't know a damn thing about her. You know her husband used to berate her, yeah, he hid it under the guise of having a fight, but he belittled her. Her family is barely there. She's been here for days, and none of them have contacted her. When her father sold the company, none of them reached out to her, they didn't band together, they split apart, and I've been there for her. Yes, I want to marry her, yes, I want to spend all my time with her, I love her, damn it, okay, I _love_ her."

His own admission startled the hell out of him. His breathing was heavy from his rush of anger, but he stared down at the floor, boring a hole into it, thinking about the words out of his mouth. They were spoken in anger, yes, but they were also the absolute truth, weren't they? Yes, they were. He was in love with Stephanie. Maybe he'd been in love with her before, but refused to let the rest of himself see it. He did love to tease her, mock her, could that all have just been a part of him wanting desperately to garner her attention? Well, now nothing made sense.

"I've got to go," Chris said, trying to side-step his father, but his father pressed his hand to Chris's shoulder. Chris looked up at him, his jaw set and ready to defend Stephanie to the end if he had to. There was a fire burning inside him. He hoped that fire translated to his eyes.

"You're getting in over your head."

"Who are you to tell me that?" Chris asked. "You don't know her, you don't know her like I do, nobody does."

"You love her," his father said, staring hard at him. Chris nodded mutely. It was still ringing in his brain that he loved her. His own words pinged around, bashing against his skull. Love, love, love, love, that was all that he could hear, all he wanted to know.

"I've got to go somewhere today, I have something I need to do," Chris said. "You don't have to agree with what we are, Dad, but you won't insult her again."

He didn't wait for his father's response before he left the room.

Stephanie dumped all her bags onto her bed. "I cannot believe all the things we bought."

Frankie laughed. "I know a couple of bags that my cousin is going to _love_."

Stephanie blushed and giggled. The day had been exceptionally fun. After her talk with Frankie, getting all of that out, she'd allowed herself to have some fun. It was hard at first, letting it go, but Frankie was right, what would be the point of hurting everyone with this? After dinner, they'd gone dancing, and while they'd all had a little something to drink, they'd danced so much, it had to be out of their system by now. So her blushes her all her own, and had nothing to do with anything she'd imbibed.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into that stuff!" Stephanie said. They'd gone into a lingerie boutique, just her and Frankie (she did _not_ need Chris's mother there to help pick out sex clothes, there were lines!), and she'd picked out a few things she would never wear until now. She was still a little embarrassed by them, but Frankie told her to live a little.

"My cousin is going to _die_," Frankie laughed, "then you won't have to worry about lies or anything because you'll just be a widow."

"Oh God," Stephanie covered her face. "I'm going to have to work up my courage just to wear some of that."

"Wear what?" Chris asked, coming into the room, already in his pajamas. He walked over to Stephanie and gave her a short peck on the lips. Stephanie was a little surprised, but happy for the small gesture. Frankie just raised an eyebrow at Stephanie, who blushed even further.

"Stuff that she bought," Frankie said, loving the way Stephanie got so embarrassed. She'd been almost furious when she first heard what was up between her cousin and Stephanie, but throughout the day, whenever Stephanie talked about Chris, there was something there, something that maybe even Stephanie didn't see. Frankie was absolutely convinced Stephanie loved Chris, and judging by the way Chris was staring at Stephanie, it was not unrequited. "Stuff that you're going to like too."

"Oh yeah?" Chris asked, smirking at Stephanie.

"Okay, we get it, we get it, we all know what it is, ha ha," Stephanie said, "I'm going to bed, tomorrow is a big day, and I need my beauty sleep, and Chris, are you even allowed to be here, I thought your mom would make you sleep somewhere else."

"I'm a little surprised she's not making me do that," Chris said, looking around, "did she have a lot to drink tonight?"

"No, none of us really did," Stephanie said. "Maybe it's just not worth it spending tonight apart."

"I don't think it is," Chris's eyes roved over her body. Once this morning was not enough. He needed her again. He needed to feel her skin against his. He needed to run his hands over her body, memorize every inch, take his time and not worry about getting caught or having someone barge in on them.

"And _that's_ my cue to leave," Frankie said. She leaned forward and hugged Stephanie, "I had so much fun today, and I'm so glad you're going to be part of my family tomorrow. Think about what I said though, okay?"

"I will, I am," Stephanie said as Frankie waved at them both, slugging her cousin in the stomach before she left, closing the door behind her.

"What is she talking about?" Chris asked as Stephanie went about taking out some of the clothes she'd bought. She wasn't going to take out the things from the lingerie shop, mostly out of embarrassment, but that stuff could wait until later…or never.

"Nothing," Stephanie dismissed it quickly, but suddenly Chris's arms were around her waist and tugging her back against his body. She let herself settle there for a moment, giving a sigh as she wrapped her arms around his.

"It couldn't be nothing if she brought it up," he told her, "tell me before I squeeze it out of you."

"You wouldn't dare, besides, it's nothing, I swear, nothing bad."

"Okay," he told her, dropping it for now, "did you have fun today?"

"I did," she answered, "I love your family. When we're married, can we come visit sometimes? I just love being around a bunch of people who obviously want to be around each other. It's such a refreshing change."

"My mother is going to adore you for saying that," Chris kissed her cheek. "She's always bugging me to come visit."

"I have no problem with that. Unfortunately, after this is over, we'll have to tell my parents," Stephanie said.

"Do you want them here? I bet if we call them right now, they can get here in time," Chris said, "I mean, I know that it's not the ideal circumstances, and they'll probably feel along the same lines as Paul and my father, but still, this is a wedding, _your_ wedding."

"They were at the first once," Stephanie said, "I mean, it's not like I don't want them to be."

"We'll call them then," Chris proposed. "It's the least we can do."

"Yeah, you're right," Stephanie said, "did you want to do that now? I mean, it's late and—"

"Yeah, now is good, but first, um, I wanted to, uh, talk to you," he told her, suddenly tensing in her arms. She turned around and looked at him. This was even harder now that she was staring at him. He cleared his throat and wished she wouldn't look at him with those eyes. "Could you maybe…not look at me?"

"Not look at you?" Stephanie asked with a laugh. When she saw he wasn't joking, her face fell a little bit. Maybe he regret what happened between them and now he was trying to save face. She bit her lip and stared at his chest. "Okay, not looking."

"Thanks," he said, "Um, so I was talking with my dad, actually, I was yelling at my dad today. He was being a jerk, but the conversation actually made me realize something—"

"You don't want to go through with this," she finished for him. How could she think he would want her? Nobody wanted her. Her family didn't want her, her husband didn't want her, her boss didn't want her. Nobody wanted her.

"No, I do, I really do…I love you, Stephanie," Chris told her, taking a shallow breath, "I realized that I've completely fallen in love with you, and I'm not sure quite what to do with that information because I'm marrying you, and I want to."

"Oh my God," she couldn't believe they were actually on the same page. "I love you too."

"Wait, what? You do?" he asked, looking at her now.

"I told your cousin the truth, everything, and she said, well she said that I was in love with you, that it was obvious, and I spent all day thinking about it, thinking about us, and it's true, and I don't think this is new. I mean, I think the love thing is kind of new, but I don't think the feelings are. I hated you, but why?"

"I know!" he told her. "There had to have been more."

"I think so too," she laughed and hugged him tightly. "I thought you'd think I was crazy."

"I thought you'd think the same thing," he told her. "I deleted the video."

"What video?" Stephanie wondered.

"Of you begging me to help you," he told her, his blue eyes piercing hers. "It was cruel of me to do that, I don't want anyone to see it so I deleted it."

"Thank you," she kissed him softly.

"And I got you something," he pulled away from her and went to the nightstand next to the bed. "I didn't know your ring size, but I wanted you to have it. Everyone keeps harping on you not having a ring, so I wanted to fix that."

He opened the box for her and inside was an oval cut diamond with a platinum band. It wasn't ostentatious like her last ring. This was simple, beautiful, and she loved it. He took it out and slipped it on her finger. It was a little big, but nothing that couldn't be sized later. She stared up at him.

"I know tomorrow is crazy and it's fast, and we have no clue what the hell we're doing after, but we're in this together, okay? Together and wanting it, right?" Stephanie blinked back a few tears. Someone wanted her.

"Right."


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thanks for the reads, reviews, and everything, enjoy! :)

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"So are you going to show me what's in those bags?"

"Not right now," Stephanie told him, playing with his hand that was laying on her chest. She lifted it up and stroked his fingers with her, her new ring catching in the moonlight that seeped in through the windows. It looked brilliant right now, like a small beacon of light. She could only imagine how it would look when the sunlight caught it just right. "Besides, it would require me to put on clothes, and wouldn't you rather have me here, like this, naked?"

"Yes, but I want to see what you bought," he teased, turning his head slightly to kiss her cheek, such a contrast from what they'd been doing just a short while ago. "I mean, I am going to marry you tomorrow, whatever's in there I'm going to see eventually."

"I like Frankie talk me into it, it's nothing I would actually wear on my own," she told him, biting her lip a little bit. "This may come as a surprise, but I'm not as seductive or sexy as one might make me out to be."

"Oh, I think you're plenty sexy," he pulled her closer and she giggled softly before she let herself cuddle into his side.

"I can't believe you're in love with me," Stephanie confessed. It was still so strange to think about it. She was so scared of her feelings just this morning. Just this morning, everything felt like a jumble in her brain. She knew how much she liked Chris, she knew something was going on, but now it all felt so simple, like she should have realized it sooner, but how much sooner? How long had this feeling been building?

"I can't believe _you're_ in love with me," Chris told her. "I can't believe we're in love with each other."

"I can't believe that either," Stephanie laughed, "we're just two very confused people."

"You can say that again. I didn't expect this when I said…wait, no, when you pretty much invited yourself to my parents' house. I expected to play it off, go back home, continue hating you, you know, the norm."

"How long do you think this has been here?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, even though he pretty much knew what she was going to say. He just wanted a few more minutes to think about it. He wasn't entirely sure what to think about the change. It was there, and he felt it, but he didn't know why it came on so suddenly? He didn't know when it began, but he never wanted it to end.

"I mean, this couldn't have just happened, love isn't that simple, I mean, at least I don't think love is that simple," she pursed her lips a little bit, thinking about how she wanted to put it, how she could possibly try to describe what love was like to her. "I guess I just don't think people fall in love at first sight—"

"I definitely did not fall in love with you at first sight," Chris let her know. "I barely even remember meeting you at all. I guess I thought you were okay because if I had a negative opinion of you from the start, I think I would have remembered that."

"I don't really remember either. I think it was just backstage, in passing, my brother or dad introduced me to you, and that was just it," she said, "but, I mean, I thought I hated you, I guess because I thought you hated me, but I think…I mean, I don't know, I hated what you said—"

"I'm so sorry for all of that, Steph," Chris told her, pulling away from her and turning on his side so he could look at her. "I think back now, and I was horrible to you I can't give you enough apologies in this world—"

Stephanie pressed her finger to his lips, licking her lips a little bit, her eyes boring into his, "We both said a lot of things that weren't exactly complimentary towards each other, you don't have to apologize unless I have to as well, and seeing as how that's not going to happen, we're better off just pushing past it, don't you think? I mean, we're getting married tomorrow, we should probably put the past in the past."

"You're right," he said, "I guess it has been there for a while, I did like paying attention to you and only you, that had to mean something, right?"

"It absolutely does, and maybe, just maybe I was really glad you were the one there when I had my meeting because I don't know that I would have tried to make this proposition to anyone else."

"What, you mean you wouldn't have asked Cena to marry you?" Chris asked with false incredulity. "You don't want to see what he's like in bed? I'm a little shocked considering you like to spend time on your back."

Stephanie mock glared at him, "I don't think Cena could handle any of this. So…I heard the fight with your dad today was about me."

"What? How did you? I only told you that I was fighting with my dad. How did you know about that, we were the only ones in the house or at least I thought we were, who blabbed?"

"Nobody," Stephanie shook her head, "I heard your parents talking about it when we came home. He was saying something about how was she so sure that what we had was anything real. I didn't hear what your mother said, but…well, yeah, I didn't really want to bring it up, but with us and tomorrow, I thought it might be something to bring up. So what did he say about me this time?"

"He believes Paul's lies—"

"You know they weren't really lies until a few days ago," Stephanie reminded him. "All of this is extremely unexpected, so we really can't blame your father for that part, the rest of it, the way he treats you, yes, we can blame your father for that."

"I do understand, but it's not the same now. I think he saw me when I realized I was in love with you, but he saw that I did, I don't know, maybe he'll lighten up about the entire thing now that he knows that, but I don't know. I don't want him to ruin things tomorrow, I actually want to marry you, even though you could say we're moving a little fast."

"In one sense, yes, but we've known each other for a long time, so it's not like we're completely unfamiliar with each other," Stephanie told him, "We can learn all the other stuff after the wedding. But…and this is still on the table, we can wait. We can move in together, and just stay engaged, get to know each other better, see if we really are compatible, and then we can have a proper wedding."

"If that's what you want, I'll do it," Chris said, "but your job?"

"It can wait, I'm still going to be around."

"No, let's just do it, that's the hard part, everything else is going to be a piece of a cake," he told her, "come on, we better get some sleep before the big day tomorrow."

There was a banging on the door before either of them knew. Stephanie opened one eye and looked around, not believing that the sun was actually out. Stephanie lifted her head and looked over her shoulder. Chris was still asleep, the knocking on the door nay the pounding the on the door having no effect on him. Stephanie stretched her neck until she heard a satisfying crack and got out of bed. She bent over to pick up her underwear slipping it on before grabbing the nearest piece of clothing, Chris's t-shirt. She could sense his scent on it and took a deep breath of it, relishing in the spicy scent that was all him.

She slipped it over her head, letting if fall to her thighs as she padded her way to the door. She opened it and was immediately pulled through it by Frankie and Chris's mother. "You guys, what's going on?"

"Is Chris awake?" Loretta asked.

"No, he's still sleeping, is something wrong?" Stephanie asked, glancing back into the bedroom where Chris was thankfully covered up. "Should I wake him up?"

"No, no, no," Loretta shook his head, "just leave him a note saying that you'll see him at the wedding. We don't want you to see each other until then, but we've got to get you ready. Grab the things you need, and let's go! We've got so much to do before the ceremony!"

"Okay, but can't I just wake him and—"

"No," Frankie said, "you can't, you have to keep a little bit of tradition. Throw on some pants and come on, we've got a whole day planned, we're going to manis and pedis first. You'll want to look your best, and we've got to get your hair done, and your makeup, and there's just so much!"

Stephanie laughed at the enthusiasm on their faces. She shook her head and gave in, going back into the bedroom for a moment. She grabbed some sweatpants, she figured the day of her wedding, she could look like a bum during the day since she'd look really good later. She grabbed a piece of paper from her briefcase and scribbled a short note to Chris explaining where she was going. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, but he just snuffled and fell back asleep. She slipped back out through the door where just Frankie was waiting.

"So…did you try on anything you bought yesterday?" Frankie asked.

"No, I didn't, that stuff was just…I mean, at some other point."

"I know you got some though," Frankie smirked, "because don't even tell me that's not the morning after glow. So I'm guessing things are good with you guys, did you talk?"

"He loves me," Stephanie bit her lip to try and keep from grinning, but it was impossible as her mouth widened into a proper grin. She looked at her future family member and blushed. "He told me he's in love with me."

"I knew it, tell me you said it back, just please tell me you said it back."

"Of course I did because I do, I love him, and he gave me this," Stephanie lifted up her left hand where her ring was sitting. "I have to get it resized, but I kind of don't want to take it off my finger."

"Oh wow," Frankie grabbed her hand and looked at her ring. "My cousin really went all out for you. You're getting married, you're getting married! You guys are going to be happy, I know that things have been…strange and probably weird, but you're happy and my cousin is happy, and you guys are going to be so happy together."

"I think what you're telling me is that we're going to be happy," Stephanie giggled, looping her arm through Frankie's as they headed down the stairs where everyone was waiting. Frankie pat Stephanie on the hand and Stephanie smiled over at her. She felt like such a part of this family already, and if she didn't want to marry Chris for Chris, she would have married him for his family.

This was something she'd never had, this camaraderie and the ease with which they all interacted (save Chris's father). She felt their warmth the moment she met them, and they laughed at each other, and they loved each other, and how could anyone not want to be a part of that, especially when her own family was practically dissolved. None of them even called to check up on her, that was how fractured they were. She hadn't been at home for days, but none of them noticed, so caught up in their own world.

She put them out of mind as they headed to the nail salon. Stephanie was treated like a queen because it was her wedding day, and despite the spontaneity of it all, she liked it. It'd been so long since she was pampered this way without something weighing heavy on her mind. Tonight, she was marrying a man who loved her, and despite their quick turnaround from enemies to lovers, today was going to be a great day. Her phone rang as she was getting her toes painted and she grabbed it from her pocket, expecting it to be Chris.

"I left you a note!" Stephanie told him as soon as she answered the phone.

"Stephanie?"

"Oh…Dad," Stephanie said, making Frankie look over and widen her eyes. "What's wrong? I haven't heard from you in a while."

"I just wanted to let you know I had a change of heart."

"What do you mean?" Stephanie asked, confused. Change of heart about what? About her?

"I've bought the company back."


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: I know, I know, I only updated this a couple weeks ago, but this is a favor for someone who really wanted to read a new chapter, so thank Jodi for this! Enjoy! :)

* * *

Stephanie gulped.

"You…but, you bought back the company?" Stephanie asked, stupefied by what her father had done. It wasn't that she didn't think he might do this eventually, but the key word was eventually. She didn't expect him to cave so soon. She stared at her toes, which were being buffed at the moment, and she just stared because she didn't know what else to do.

"Yes, I did, I bought it back."

"Why? I mean, not that I didn't think you would, but why now? I thought you were happy with the sale?"

"Because the WWE is our company, my company, and I can't let it get into the hands of someone else, especially not Trump's clutches. He'd probably go bankrupt within the year, I can't have that," Vince said authoritatively. "I just couldn't let that happen."

"So you bought it back?"

"Yes, I bought it back, actually got him to come down on the price once I told him all the expenses, cheap bastard," Vince chuckled, more for himself than for the benefit of his daughter. "I just wanted to inform you that your job is of course secure. I'd heard that he was going to fire you because you were my daughter. That would have been a bonehead move."

"You think that would have been a bonehead move?" Was her father drunk? Sure, sometimes he told her he was proud of her, but those times were so few and far between they always seemed like hazy, made-up memories after a while.

"Stephanie, you're good at what you do, he would have been a fool to fire you, especially when you know so much about the business. I can't believe he even thought to do that, and for what? A grudge? Stupid, stupid man. Without you, the company would have been run into the ground. Just goes to show that I was right in buying the company back."

"I didn't think you thought that."

"Of course I do," Vince told her. "So I expect you back at work on Monday, understood?"

"I didn't have any plans to be anywhere else," Stephanie admitted.

"Where are you, anyways? I tried calling the house first, seeing as how you like to sleep in on weekends, but you weren't answering," Vince said, and Stephanie looked around. Frankie was talking with Loretta, laughing about something, leaving Stephanie to her conversation. She bit her lip, wondering how she was going to explain this. She didn't know what to do.

"I…took a spa weekend," Stephanie lied, turning her body away from the others for a moment. Thankfully, they were too enthralled in their own conversations to notice how uncomfortable she suddenly was. And Chris's ring, the one he bought for her, it was slipping and sliding uncomfortably around her ring finger, making her hyper aware of its presence. "Thought I might need to relax."

"I guess that appropriate since you're back to work on Monday, but don't make this a habit," he joked. "So now that you know, you can continue knowing your job is safe and waiting for you on Monday. And come over for dinner that night too, your mother wants to see you."

"Okay," she said, but it was barely above a whisper and said out of instinct rather than want.

"I'll see you Monday then, bright and early, we'll have a conference meeting at 10:30 to reacquaint everyone to the changes. See you then."

"Bye, Dad," Stephanie said, hanging up the call.

When the call was ended, the thoughts immediately began. She stared again at the ring on her finger, slightly too big, slightly falling off to the side. Chris gave that to her because he loved her. He loved her because she came with him for the weekend. She came with him for the weekend because she was going to marry him. She was going to marry him because she didn't want to be out of a job.

A job that was now securely in her grasp.

She was in love with Chris, she'd been in love with him for so long, but the root of everything, the root of this wedding was simply because she needed to keep her job at all costs. But that reason was gone. There was no reason to get married anymore, well, except for the love thing, but they both knew they were rushing it. And they were rushing it because they thought she needed to be married as soon as possible.

"Stephanie?"

Stephanie glanced over at Frankie, who was staring at her. How long Frankie might have been staring at her, Stephanie had no idea. It could have been a minute, it could have been five minutes, it could have been five hours for all Stephanie knew. "Hmm?"

"Who was on the phone?" Frankie asked. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, um, yeah," Stephanie said, "it was just my father, but it was no big deal."

She wanted to confide in Frankie, but she didn't at the same time. She didn't want to hear someone tell her that this was it, this was the moment where she would have to decide everything. Did she go through with this sham wedding that shouldn't take place right now or should she marry Chris and hope for the best afterwards? They'd only been together for a few days, they weren't ready for marriage, were they? They'd known each other for years, but this was different. This was _marriage_.

"You're getting cold feet," Frankie whispered to her, "and I don't mean that literally, what's up?"

"Not now," Stephanie glanced over at Loretta. Frankie looked over her shoulder and nodded her head. Stephanie gave her a thankful smile, and they both fell into their manicures and pedicures until they were back in the calm confines of Frankie's car.

"So what's up now? Cold feet? I mean, all things considered, I'm not surprised," Frankie laughed, but when Stephanie didn't laugh, Frankie stopped her own laugh. "Okay, now I know it's serious because I thought that was funny."

"My dad bought the company back."

"Oh, so that means…"

"It means I don't need to marry Chris anymore. My job is sitting there waiting for me on Monday, and my dad expects me there. He said that I should be in for the first meeting at 10:30. So this…all of this—"

"Is unnecessary," Frankie finished for her. Stephanie nodded her head, staring again at her ring. Maybe it was a sign that it didn't fit right, maybe she and Chris didn't fit right. Shouldn't they be at a place in their lives where he could get her a ring that was the right size? Shouldn't they know what the other liked on their pizza? Shouldn't they really know each other's morning routines or bedtime routines?

"Exactly," Stephanie nodded. "What do I do?"

"I can't tell you what to do, Stephanie," Frankie responded immediately. "Only you and Chris can know that. You love each other though, I know you do, and if that translates into you waiting, great, if it translates into you getting married, great. I guess now that you don't have a concrete reason for this, you have to think of what reasons there are to get married or not get married. It's up to you now, just you and him. Do you want me to take you back home?"

"What about—"

"I'll tell them you couldn't stay away from your groom," Frankie said, already dialing a number. Frankie waited a moment, hearing the phone pick up and said, "Hey, Aunt Retta, Stephanie just could not stay away from Chris today, so I'm taking her back to the house for a little bit, but don't worry, she'll be ready, I'll make sure of it."

They spoke for a few more seconds before Frankie hung up. Without another word or explanation, she started the car and drove back to the house. Stephanie was nearly out of the car before it stopped, and Frankie languished behind, thinking of how to occupy her time. Stephanie opened the door and called out Chris's name. His head popped out from the kitchen area, and he looked surprised to see her.

"Hey, I thought you were getting whisked away for the day, and I wouldn't get to see you," he hugged her, and she let herself fall into his embrace. She hugged him around the waist, holding him tightly and burying her face into his neck. "You okay?"

"No," she mumbled.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to talk."

"Nothing good in the history of ever started off with those words," he pulled away from her, ducking down the centimeters it took for them to be eye-to-eye. "What's up?"

"Can we go upstairs?" she nodded towards the stairs, and he nodded his agreement, grabbing her newly manicured hand as they headed up to their bedroom. He closed the door behind them and she took a seat on the small couch in the room. He sat down next to her, his knee bumping into hers.

"Okay, so spill, what's up? I mean, I know the whole marriage thing is looming, but you've done this before, if anyone should be nervous, it should be me, right? I mean, I don't know about any of this marriage stuff, although you were married to Paul, so that was probably more of a chore than anything else."

"My dad bought the company back," she told him, her voice more level than she thought it could be. It actually sounded calm, which was not what she felt. She felt chaotic, like everything was flying at her and she was desperately trying to dodge all the blows.

He didn't say anything for a few moments, his face blank, "Oh, so…we don't need to do any of this, huh?"

"Not really," she grimaced. "I mean, here we are, and everything that we were supposed to do, needed to do for me to keep my job, it's all gone now, nothing more needed, so here we are, right?"

"Yeah, here we are, a wedding on the horizon, and us without a reason."

"I just, I don't know what to say or do right now," Stephanie said, pulling her hands away, twisting at the ring on her finger. "I mean, it's just…we started all of this so I could keep my job, that was the ultimate plan, right? And now it's gone, so…what do we do now? I don't want to hurt your family, Chris, but should we wait?"

"I don't know, it's up to you."

"It's your decision too, you're in this relationship."

"I would marry you," Chris looked at her, his blue eyes boring into hers. "I would marry you right here, right on this spot. I think I would have married you the moment I met you if I could—"

"Chris," she balked.

"No, I'm serious, if I just looked at you like I'm looking now, if I just see you as I see you right now, I would have married you on the spot, Stephanie, and I want to marry you right now, why waste any more time? I want to marry you, do you want to marry me?"

"Wow…"

"Is that a no?" he wondered.

"No, that's not a no, that's a wow, I didn't think you could fall for me like that, I must _really_ be good in bed," she joked with him, "on the spot, huh?"

"Well, I might have wanted to know your middle name or something, just to prove I knew _something_ about you, but I'm sick and tired of acting like this isn't something I want, maybe something I've wanted for a while. There had to be a reason I teased you, don't you think? I mean, there had to be a reason why I constantly wanted to get your attention."

"I suppose."

"So…what does this mean? If you want to, I will wait for you. I'll wait however long you want to, my family might not understand, but who cares, whatever you want to do, Steph, that's what we'll do. If you just want to go on a date tonight, cool, we'll catch a movie and dinner."

"I want to get married," she smirked at him. "I want to get married to you."

"I was hoping you'd say that."


End file.
